


Under his Spell

by Enna



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Hurt Loki, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Loki Feels, Loki Has Issues, Loki Needs a Hug, M/M, Mind Control, Partial Mind Control, Protective Avengers, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 38,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7614424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enna/pseuds/Enna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Loki succeeded in mind controlling Tony?</p><p>~•~</p><p>"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> This is my first series, my second fanfic ever, and my first fanfic in English. It's not my first language, so, sorry about any mistakes. 
> 
> Obviously, I do not own any of Marvel's characters. Because it's Marvel's characters. 
> 
> Have fun!

"...because if we can't protect the earth, you can be well damn sure we'll avenge it."

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"

**Click**

The end of Loki's sceptre on Tony's Arc reactor, the god seemed surprised to see...absolutely no change.

"This usually works"

"Oh, performance issue is not uncommon. One out of five–"

The genius' sentence was cut off by a –reaaally cold– hand around his throat throwing him back first on the ground.

"Don't believe I'll give up that easily, mortal. What if I ripped that beautiful, shining thing of your puny little human chest? Would it work then?"

Tony's eyes, now filled with not so well hidden fear, locked on Loki's manic smile.  
Fighting for a little air in his assaulted lungs, he groaned.

"I would advice against that if you really want to keep me alive to fight my team, Reindeer Games."

Thinking, the god glared at Tony, looked carefully through the widow, and, with a resigned sigh, teleported them in a bedroom of the Tower. Tony, still dizzy because of the choice of transport, barely registered Loki 'magically' removing his shirt with a flick of his wrist.

"Woah, ask a guy on a date first." A glint of annoyance came and went in the god's gaze as he choose to ignore the human.

"If that is the only thing preventing me from winning against your fellow Avengers, I just have to find a way to counter it."

That was the only warning the mortal got before the other's hand came on top of his Arc reactor and a weird green light shone on top of his chest, the criminal still keeping the struggling genius on his back. Tony felt like ants were crawling under his skin. Suddenly, Loki grinned, the green light stopped and Loki, with a click, removed the Arc reactor.

Tony gasped. "I-I thought you wanted me alive?!"

"Oh I do, but it seems that you omitted to tell me that I have a little time before the shrapnel reaches your heart"

_Fuck_

Tony felt ratter than saw the end of Loki's sceptre entering his chest cavity. A blue light flashing in front of his eyes before his mind became a fog.

 

~•~

 

With a grin, Loki placed back the Arc Reactor into Tony's chest. Who would have thought that this clearly exposed weakness would be able to shield the mortal from his magic?

"Since that is not a problem anymore, we can proceed with my plan, Stark. The avengers aren't even here yet. It seems that I moved our emplacement for nothing."

The god put a hand on the man's shoulder and pulled him on his feet, his now shining blue eyes looking straight at the god's.

"Stark, go distract your little friends. Don't let them get to me."

"Well, easy for you to say." Tony walked back to his landing floor. Followed closely by Loki.

Loki was a bit surprised by the sarcasm in his voice. It is known that the mind control does not erases one's personality, but the archer's seemed less lively during his moment of "cooperation". Maybe this man was stronger than what the god anticipated. His cautious eyes fell on the determinate human's back.

"JARVIS, call up my suit and I forbid you to contact the Avengers or help them. Override code Beta-02506."

"Sir, don't you think you should alert the Avengers of your change of side?"

"No, they'll know soon enough." The suit soon started to assemble around the genius and he took off.

The god instantly started to smirk. He had the genius in an armour, nobody, not even the Avengers, would be able to defeat him.

 

~•~

 

"What an idiot–"

"Cap, his comm is off."

"–thinking that he could do that by himself–" Clint let out a frustrated sigh while running a hand through his hair.

"Have you tried JARVIS?"

"–How could a genius be this dumb?–"

"I'm trying, but it looks like he's blocked."

"That's not normal. Get us there yesterday, Widow."

"On it. 25 seconds."

*electrical sizzling*

The helicarrier stopped abruptly. Steve looked around, confused and on alert, as everyone on board lost their balance and got projected a few feet ahead. The Captain could only see a flash of red and gold before the helicarrier fell from the sky.

 

~•~

 

The crash was beautiful. Even Tony, who was not particularly fond of them –too messy–, could admit it. As the helicarrier fell on a little coffee shop, the only regret he had was that maybe the coffee they served there was good. The fire didn't even spread since there was only the shop, empty parking places and streets. The second he took control of the helicarrier, he felt how much Loki would be proud of him. It has been so long since the last time someone was genuinely proud of him and it was such a relief to know that Loki would.

Looking down at the fire, he spotted Captain America successfully getting out of the plane. It sure was quick. The genius hoped to save more time with that trick. Cap looked up and Tony turned on his communication.

"Iron Man, statut."

"Oh I feel great Cap", said Tony while flying closer to the ground. "How about you? Is that blood on your face? Are you in pain my dear Captain?" Smirking, he took of his faceplate, revealing to the word his now unnatural blue eyes.

Cap's eyes opened so wildly that it was near ridiculous.

"Was it is _Steve_?", Tony said with disdain. "Is that fear in your eyes? Well, I guess it would be an accurate reaction right now."

Without further ado, Iron Man fired his repulsor right in Captain America's chest, sending him, still shocked, flying across the street.

Black Widow and Hawkeye just got out of the plane when they saw the scene.

"Iron Man, surrender," she said. "We don't want to get to the point where we need to hurt you"

"Well you see, I can't do that. I've got a mission to clear."

Tony saw Steve getting back up and running to the Stark Tower.

_At least he wasn't dumb enough to use the comms._

But, unfortunately for Steve he wasn't fast enough. Iron Man quickly flew over and shot him again with his repulsor before taking him back to the others by a strap on his suit.

"Ah, ah, got ya! Now, now don't leave us so soon. The party is just starting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would appreciate it if you would let me know what you think about this first chapter and if you want more. :)  
> (I have the second chapter almost ready and I will post it either way, but it's always nice to know if someone is waiting for it.) ;)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 2 :) 
> 
> Have fun!

Loki was feeling fantastic. While watching this weird mortal tickling with the machine that was soon going to destroy the Midgard they new, Loki heard the rumble of thunder. He tsked, annoyed and glanced down at his pet distracting the Avengers. Stark seemed almost as annoyed as him, even from this distance, and while fighting three angry superheroes.

The god then saw his brot–Thor flying toward him, glancing briefly at his fellow Avengers. He crashed loudly on the roof of the Tower and almost ran to the black haired god. Loki let himself get taken by the collar and put on the best maniacal smirk he could come up with.

"Stop this nonsense right this instant, brother."

"It won't be this easy Thor. If you really want to stop me, you'll need to fight me..." He raised a hand to the mortal by the Tesserac. This mortal then started the machine and a hole opened in the once blue sky. "...and my army."

His smile was so wide that his cheeks hurt, but he didn't care. Because he would win Midgard. He would win over his brother.

Thor released his collar to look at the portal, then at its key, before throwing Mjölnir at the latter. The hammer hit the energy shield protecting the machine and rebounded before landing on the roof loudly, making a crater.

"I told you it would not be this easy." Loki hit Thor with a beam from his sceptre as the Chitauri started to pass through the portal.

Thor seemed to want to keep arguing, but reluctantly took his hammer and flew back to his Avengers.

~•~

Tony was getting annoyed, really annoyed. The Creepy-Scary-Backstabbing-Spider, Legolas and Stars-and-Stripes kept trying to access the Tower. CSBS was trying to sneak up on him –even though he was in the fucking air– Legolas was shooting arrows –nothing new here–, and the American Icon –the most annoying– was throwing his shield at him every time he had the chance. He had to admit that they got him a few times and they were slowly moving toward the Tower, but they were nothing without a good tactic. Too bad Tony was still on the comms and could hear them constantly. He fired his repulsors for what felt like the thousandth time. He didn't even know when he could stop distracting them. Loki didn't tell him.

*rumble of thunder*

_Fuck me!_

"JARVIS, where is Thor?"

"He is heading toward the Stark Tower, sir."

He couldn't deal with him right now. Tony hoped that Loki wouldn't be disappointed in him for letting the god go.

He continued to keep his targets on check for a while, then saw the sky opening up and some sort of weird grey flying ships passing through it. The god of Thunder soon joined them on the ground.

"Man of Iron, what is it that you are doing to our teammates?"

Tony didn't get the chance to answer as a motorbike drove to them and a battled Bruce Banner quickly analyzed the situation –Tony with blue eyes, still firing at the Avengers, people screaming, aliens invading earth, and a crashed helicarrier– before transforming into the Hulk.

A voice behind him brought him back from a near panic –no one wants to fight against a soldier, two murderous agents, a god, AND a green rage monster–.

"If you would excuse me, I will be borrowing this one."

He saw a hand on his armoured arm and blinked. When he opened his eyes again, he was on the roof of Stark Tower.

_Ok then, teleportation._

"That was a close one."

"You did well, Stark." Tony felt warmth spreading through his chest. "But the fight isn't finished."

Loki approached Doctor Selving and pushed the sceptre against his chest, blue light enveloping his body.

"I have no need for you anymore."

Tony only had the time to see the blue in the doctor's eyes fading before the man disappeared.

"Now Stark," said Loki, turning back to him. "Would you tell me if this machine can be countered."

"Sure it can, every machine can," said Stark without hesitation. He than approached the machine, looked at the energy shield and crouched at its base. "Hum, however, it might take a while for the Avengers to counter it with all they need to do."

"How much time is at our disposal?"

"With all the aliens and the complexity of the shield, but with Widow's abilities? I would say an hour and a half, max."

"Well then, we have an hour and a half to eliminate them."

~•~

On the ground, the team didn't have the time to think about their lost teammate. The Chitauri were quickly landing on the city, ravaging all they could on their way.

Captain America kept alternating between blows, kicks and shield throwing. While he was distracted with another wave of aliens coming out of the portal, one of them managed to place a few hits that made him fly through a window. When he was capable of moving again, he looked around to the eyes of numerous children and a women's in the middle, all of them looking terrified. Her fear filled eyes locked on the captain's.

"Miss, is there a basement in here?"

"N-no, hum, but t-there is one n-next door. W-when I saw t-the battle with Iron Man t-through the window, I g-gathered the children to go t-there, b-but we didn't have the time. And we can't go outside n-now." She said, still panicking.

The Captain looked at the wall leading to 'next door' and punched it with his shield until a hole, big enough to let a crawling adult pass, appeared on the wall.

"Lead the children and yourself to safety, quickly," he said before running away by the way he came.

~•~

Black Widow, hunched over a wrecked car, was finally able to kill the Chitauri she had difficulties with. With a sigh, she got up and looked around. People were screaming and running away from hostilities falling from the sky. She spotted Cap flying through a window and getting up, Hulk who was smashing things –no surprise there–, Thor who was handling the aliens just as they were exiting the portal, and she could see arrows flying to help Thor.

Unfortunately, even if they were giving it all they could, it simply wasn't enough. The population was still in danger and the Chitauri were still falling from the sky and destroying New York. They needed a plan. They needed to talk to each other, Stark be damned.

"Guys, this isn't working, I need to move to the Tower to close the portal and we need to keep those civilians out of the street. We can't keep radio silence right now even with Stark listening in."

"Right"

"Got it. Widow, try to make your way to the Tower. Hawkeye, cover her. I can't reach Thor. He probably fried his ear piece. And Bruce broke it during his fall. Thor can stay up there, we'll need it, but I'll get Hulk and we'll clear the streets."

"I'm on it, Cap. Clint, ready?"

"When you are, Nat."

Black Widow took off in the sea of alien. Kicking and throwing punches and Widow bites, while arrows from Hawkeye saved her ass when she had too much on her.

~•~

Cap fought his way to Hulk and called out for him.

"Hey, Hulk." Hulk turned around to face Steve, a Chitauri plane in one hand and a car in another.

Thinking about it, he was doing a great job.

"Smash them all." He said with a smile that was soon returned by Hulk. The car and the plane came crashing together like paper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooo!  
> I'm super happy with the reviews I got on Chapter 1! Like I said to some of you, I'm on break until the end of August, so I'm pretty free to do what I want right now, but it will change when school happens. Then, it might take longer for me to update. However, don't worry, I'm handling this. ;)
> 
> Comment if you want to start conversation or have nothing better to do. It's always appreciated! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 3!
> 
> Have fun!

  
Loki was flying over the fight, observing the Avengers' plan taking form. He smiled. His pet was right: Black Widow was the one going for the Tower. The Captain was saving obviously stupid mortals –who were still on the streets, screaming like idiots– and killing a few Chitauris in the process. With a frown, Loki took notice of the green beast that seemed to be too effective to his liking. It was crashing space ships after space ships without even flinching when it was attacked. Did it even know it was? After giving Thor a brief glance, Loki took off to see the green monster.

~•~

Iron Man was sitting at the top of his Tower, dangling his feet at the edge, and watching Natasha fighting her way to him and the Tesserac. They had made a plan and he new about it, but it wasn't so much help right now. He couldn't really do anything but wait for Black Widow.

The genius could feel Loki's power in his body. He felt like he could do anything, like he was invincible. However, he was a genius; he knew that he wasn't and that it would all go away with one wrong move, but he couldn't help feeling at peace.

When was the last time it happened? Definitely when he was a child, naïve and protected from the darkness of the world. It must have been when Howard wasn't constantly at the end of the rope and when Maria was signing lullabies to help him sleep. Tony closed his eyes and hummed the melody he could still remember clearly, even after all these years. The sounds of explosions and the screams got muffled. All he could hear was the lullaby and his mother's voice.

Suddenly, his chest started to hurt and his Arc Reactor, to flash. He backed of the edge of the tower, a hand on his chest. He then got five seconds of pure agony. Five seconds with everything but the peace he was feeling just a moment ago. Five seconds where his thought were shoving each other felt like bursting out of his head. Five seconds where all his body seemed on fire, drowning, tortured.

_Why am I up here? I should be fighting with my team. It fucking hurts, it hurts so much. It's Afghanistan all over again. Why am I siding with the homicidal god who is trying to rule earth by making everyone kneel and is ruling an army of aliens that are falling from the sky? Why is there aliens falling from the sky in the first place? Omg, I opened fire on Captain America! CAPTAIN AMERICA! Dad would have been so mad. Would probably have disown me. Why does it still hurt so much? Will it stop? It feels like it won't. Why did my Arc Reactor flash? It's not supposed to do that. Loki touched my Arc Reactor, I'm so going to kill him after this. Oh god it hurts, it hurts, it hurts..._

As suddenly as it started, the pain stopped and the feeling of peace was back, but confusion was reigning in Tony's mind. The billionaire pushed himself back up from a foetal position he got himself in at some point. He didn't have the time to think more of it when JARVIS called for him.

"Sir, I think you would like to know that Agent Romanoff has reached and entered the Tower."

"Give me the views of the surveillance cameras. This is gonna be fun!"

~•~

The beast was impressive. Loki had to admit it. It was power, brutal force. It was a shame that it lacked in intelligence. It would have been useful. As he approached it, the god could feel the energy and the rage emitting from it.

Loki was almost too lost in his thoughts to see the monster's gaze shifting to him. It groaned and charged at him. He barely had time to doge. It turned around and charged again, but Loki had a magical shield up this time. The impact send them both flying backwards and into buildings. Loki's new injuries were healing as he got up and Hulk only seemed angrier.

_This is going to take more time than anticipated._

~•~

When she finally made it into the Stark Tower, she didn't even have a chance to breathe before guns were pointed at her face. If Cap wasn't really busy helping people out of the streets, she would have asked him to help her reach the top of the Tower immediately, but no, she had to reach the top of it by herself. In a fraction of second, Natasha had her gun out and was hidden behind the vacant receptionist's dark granite desk. The guns seemed to be part of the building and controlled at distance –probably by Stark. Leave a Stark to do this. They shot at the desk for a while before stopping. Natasha risked a look over it, but immediately felt pain in her left thigh. She backed off and finally saw the knife under the desk, and it was definitely moving.

_So, I got stabbed, huh. Should have anticipated that. It IS Stark's Tower. So, what now? She looked up at the vents. No, too risky and would take too much time. There is no way I'm taking the elevator. Be in a small open compartment alone with an AI that could possibly bomb the entirety of the earth? Not a good idea. So, that leaves this. Three, two, one..._

In a smooth and quick movement she rolled out from under the desk, shot the guns in the wall, spotted the stairs and made a run for it. She reached the stairs, but continued to run. She needed to go to the roof of a 93 floors building while trying to survive a mind controlled genius and his too powerful AI –not forgetting aliens outside–, and she was taking the _stairs_. She needed a raise. And a break, in a few minutes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take a minute of your time to leave a kudo or comment if you liked this chapter. :)
> 
> See you soon!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, here's chapter 4.
> 
> Have fun! :)

On the screen, he could see Natasha looking over the desk. He commanded JARVIS to use the knife under it. He smile when she backed off from the desk, but his smile was gone as quickly as it came when he saw that the Agent had reached the stairs. He pouted.

_Why didn't she use the elevator? It would have been so much more fun!_

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud, inhuman screeching.

Tony's security was good. Really good. Probably the best in the world, but it wasn't infallible. At this moment, he was controlling everything and that was a mistake. Not because he wasn't competent enough, far from it. He was the best: he basically created it. In this case though, it was the worst idea ever.

The problem was that he was so immersed into trying to eliminate Widow, that he forgot that he was on the edge of a Tower, in a city that was getting attacked by aliens. Therefore, he was ratter surprised when one of them came crashing on the building next to his, making the roof shake, and the genius loose his footage, finishing onto the big creepy alien snake responsible of all this. This could make someone loose their concentration, hence Black Widow. He avoided Thor's thunderbolts and a dozen Chitauri. By the time he got off of the thing, back on the roof –not on the edge anymore– and founded Black Widow on his cameras again, she had reached level 23.

_Damn, she's fast._

~•~

It was weird. There were lasers, guns, heavily guarded doors in the stairwells. Widow new that, but none of them were actively trying to stop/kill her. However, she couldn't think about that. She only needed to run until she reached the roof. She just ran. Ran until she was out of breath. Only then did she look at the sign indicating on what floor she was. 21. Floor 21. She was loosing time that she couldn't afford to loose. Ignoring her aching lungs and the tiredness running through her muscles, she continued to climb.

When she reached Floor 24, an explosion erupted on the stairs just below her. Natasha thrown herself on the ground. After a few seconds, she raised her head, ignoring the buzzing in her ears. Iron man stood in front of here, a gauntlet pointed at her face.

"Well, well, well, you definitely have determination. I'll give you that." Iron Man's synthetic voice was almost drowned out by the shouts and the sounds of falling rubbles.

Natasha barely had time to roll over before the spot she was just on got shot by Iron Man. In a beat, she got on her feet and lashed out on him. She pushed his arm away, jumped on him and gripped his faceplate. Pain erupted on Widow's side, effectively telling her that Tony managed a hit. She panted and hissed, but stayed concentrated. Before he could touch her again, she jumped on his shoulder, put a leg around his neck and pulled. He staggered backward, like she wanted, but before she could make her next move, he slammed her into a wall. She fell off of him and once again had a repulsor pointed at her face. She looked around for opening, but found none. The light of the repulsor came to life as she prepared herself to move at the last moment, but the blow never came. Instead, she found Iron Man quickly backing off, clutching his chest like a lifetime, and falling to the ground, screaming.

~•~

He could hear someone screaming and it was too loud to come from outside. He recognized his own voice and his hands on his Arc Reactor.

 _Fuck, not again! What the hell is happening?!_ He heard a surprised sound coming from in front of him and looked up.

"N-N-Natasha?"

"Tony? What's happening?" she said, looking suspicious.

Tony grunted and remembered the situation he was in. He managed to sit up against a wall and looked into the big hole that had once been a wall. Aliens and fire were ravaging the city and it couldn't be stopped...unless they closed the portal.

He looked over at Natasha.

"Selving...saved...an opening," he hissed under the agony, "the..sceptre,...Loki's, it'll close...it."

"Tony, how did you fight the mind control? How could I even believe you're not playing me right now?"

"You...don't have a...choice" he muttered, eyes watering.

He got up with difficulty. Without further warning, he took her in his arms bridal style, being careful of her injuries and flew out to the roof of the Tower. He landed heavily, almost dropping her, but achieved to put her down gently beside the Tesserac. He dropped to one knee and let out a painful sigh.

"Stay here...I'll get the sceptre."

He didn't let her answer as he took off.

~•~

Loki was surprise of the power the beast could muster. His magic was dropping dangerously and he was almost only depending on the power contained in his sceptre. Delivering blows after blows, he needed to change his plans or he would lack on energy. While he was busy making a new plan, the creature charged at him, effectively destroying his weakened shields and pushing him into a wall. His sceptre fell from his hand, in a crater formed by the beast, along with his chances to use the backup power for his plan. His body was trying to keep his magic inside to heal himself, but Loki ignored that and used it to make the beast back off. He fell to his knees as it did reluctantly. He changed his tactic. Getting up, he walked up to the mindless monster as it made a move to charge at him again.

"ENOUGH!" The god yelled. "You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature." He took a painful breath before continuing. "And I will not be bullied by–"

Suddenly, one of his feet was in the monster's hand, silencing the god, as it smashed him repeatedly on the ground. Bones were breaking and hidden thoughts were breaking free. Finally, the smashing stopped and the beast stumped away, mumbling under its breath about puny gods. The god was on his back, laying in a crater formed by his own body. Whimpers were the only sounds escaping his mouth as shock enveloped him.

_What have I done?_


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Here's chapter 5.
> 
> Have fun!

Tony was flying around, looking for signs of a crazy homicidal god. He must have been around the Avengers, fighting them. He spotted Cap, Hawkeye and Thor, but no sign of the misbehaving younger brother. He fought against a wave of guilt, when he looked around the devastated areas around him.

_That wasn't me. It wasn't my fault..._

Then, he could hear the Hulk groaning. Tony led himself through the city by following the sound. After only a few seconds, he could see Hulk smashing a god on the ground and leaving the scene, but no glowing sceptre. He looked around, paying no mind to the semiconscious criminal, until he could see the sceptre in a hole. He took it and leaved the scene, not looking back.

When he reached the Tower, Natasha had got herself up and drew a gun out, pointing it at Tony. Without a word, he put the sceptre on the floor and kicked it lightly in her direction. She glanced at it before taking it carefully.

"You need to put the tip in the energy shield and reach the Tesserac."

Tony was starting to get used to the constant pain in his chest, but his mind was jelly. It was hurting so bad, it seemed that his brain shut itself out to subdue the agony. He was numb all over and couldn't think clearly, but he definitely heard Fury telling the Avengers about the missile that was about to get cozy with New York. He opened his comms.

"I got this, I know exactly where to put it." He looked at Natasha. "Don't wait up for me."

He didn't wait for an answer and flew to find the missile.

Jarvis located it quickly enough. Tony flew under it and grabbed it so it was leaning on his back.

"Tony, you know that's a one-way trip." He vaguely heard Cap say to him, but Tony ignored him. He knew.

As he approached New York, he pushed and changed, degree by degree, the path of the missile, but it wasn't enough. He pushed the repulsors at their limits and missed a building by a hair. He could see the black hole tearing the blue sky.

"Sir, shall I try Miss Potts or Colonel Rodes?" Jarvis asked.

Tony couldn't even make himself think about what he would say. He was so tired, so numb. He just wanted it all to stop hurting.

"No, J. Thanks"

He was coming closer and closer until he actually got in the portal. He could hear JARVIS thanking him for some things he couldn't understand at that moment. He could feel cold creeping its way in the armour as it stopped working, oxygen not getting in his lungs anymore and his eyelids starting to get heavy, but what scared him the most, as he let go off the missile he was holding, was the silence. The utterly lack of any sound. He could not hear the people screaming or the sounds of battle anymore. Not even the sound of wind. No. It was pure silence and it wasn't comforting. It was the kind of silence that gave goosebumps. Almost like the one you felt when you were walking alone in a creepy dark alley at night. The silence created by paranoia, by fear. The one when you only allowed your breath to break it because you new that if anything else did, you would suffer. Would it have been a sound you made or a sound something else made.

When Tony finally allowed himself to closed his eyes, it was when that silence was broken by an explosion and when the darkness let itself be lightened up by fire.

~•~

When Steve heard Director Fury, he didn't understand what was happening. His brain just didn't register that the government would allow that, allow people to die, allow New York to die. Then he heard Stark saying that he would take care of it. He was even more confused. He allowed himself do something that wouldn't confused him: he fought. Cap delivered punch after punch like he would die if he stopped.

He did stop though, when the missile and Iron Man flew above him. He did understand, then. Stark was going to save them. He was going to sacrifice himself for New York, for his people. He was going to prove wrong the Captain America who had been on that helicarrier. He was going to lay on that wire. Remorse and guilt invaded Steve's mind, but he couldn't do anything. Without even thinking about it, he let out a warning for Stark, but he knew that Stark knew. Cap wasn't surprise by the lack of answer. All he could do was watch as Tony flew his way through the portal.

"Cap, we need to close the portal." He heard Natasha said.

So she had found a way. He wanted to scream at her that he couldn't let her shut the only way out for his teammate, but he couldn't let Tony's sacrifice go to waste and he wouldn't forgive himself if the explosion reached earth.  
"C-close it." He finally said.

He watched as the portal closed itself and the sky returned blue gradually. The Captain couldn't help but have hope. He couldn't imagine Tony dying now. Suddenly, just before the portal could close itself completely, the Iron Man armour fell from the sky. Relief past through the Avengers, but it soon disappeared. Something was wrong.

"He is not slowing down." Thor said as he started to swing his hammer to fly off and help his teammate.

Hulk was faster. It ran and jumped to catch Iron Man, but just before it could reach him, he disappeared in a familiar green light. Hulk fell on a building, clearly as shocked as the others, before letting out a painful inhuman howl.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 6.
> 
> Have fun!

Loki knew that he couldn't let Iron Man fall to his death, so he saved him from it. As he walked into one of the other houses the man –still unconscious in the god's arms– owned, he let his mind drift away. The voice in the ceiling greeted them and he sat on a couch after setting Stark down on an other.

There definitely was a problem with the mind control. Stark couldn't just have helped the others otherwise. Maybe it was because of the hit he or the sceptre took. Maybe Stark took a hit. Maybe it was because the god's mind was more free then it had been for a long time. Anyway, it didn't really matter, he couldn't just let the mortal fall. Also, he would be useful. The god needed a way to keep himself safe while he recovered and this house would do. It's not like he could leave anyway, with the little power he had left. He new he probably didn't deserve it, but Loki was a selfish creature and he couldn't let himself get caught. He new what would happen to him if he went back to Asgard and he didn't believe that he would live through it.

The god looked over at the unconscious form laying on the couch. The light in his chest had stopped shining for a couple of seconds, but it had soon started again. The Void must have drained its energy temporarily. The Voice –it seemed to like to be called JARVIS– had helped him remove the armour and he could now see cuts all over his body. If Loki had more power, he would have healed them, but the best he could do now was to search for the first aid kit JARVIS mentioned.

When he found it, he proceeded in cleaning the wounds and stitching the worst ones.

~•~

When Tony regained consciousness, it was to the comforting sensation of warm hands on his arm and face. Still half asleep, he leaned into the touch. It stopped. He frowned, confused, before opening his eyes to the surprised face of the god of Mischief. He kept staring, seeming shocked by something.

"Your eyes...they are...blue."

"Hum...yes. I mean, you used your shiny little toy on me. That changes someone's eyes color, Lokitti." Loki shook his head, looking dazed and confused.

"No, you...took my sceptre. You disobeyed your orders. You're not supposed to be under my control anymore."

Tony frowned again before sitting up. It's true, he went against his orders. Also, there was this horrible pain. He unconsciously rubbed his chest around his arc reactor and Loki's eyes followed his movements.

"...Yeah...It happened two times...There was a sudden pain around my arc reactor while I was on the others' side. I'm gonna need to do some tests..." Loki stood up and started pacing, a hand in his hair, mumbling words under his breath before stopping abruptly as if a decision was taken. He turned back to Tony.

"Certainly, but right now, we don't have the time. I was going to take you in hostage to keep the Avengers from attacking me while I recover, but since you're on my side right now, you would be more helpful if you could make this house secure enough for a few days at least."

Tony looked at the god for a moment, fully seeing how much he looked exhausted: the black half moons under his eyes, his pale skin and his hunching position. The genius nodded and gestured for Loki to follow him, which he did. Tony grabbed a tablet on his way and walked over to the bedroom next to his. He opened the door for the god and let him walk in before himself.

"So...this can be your bedroom. The bathroom is over there. If you need anything else, my room is just next door, my lab is downstairs and JARVIS is installed in every room of the house."

"...Thank you, what about security?" Loki asked while looking around the room. He sat on the edge of the bed quietly and was soon joined by Tony, who sat cross legged in its middle.

"I'm gonna take care of that. I doubt that the Avengers will come running here to find us with all the chaos in New York and the way you probably disappeared with me. Besides, I'm not really a great motivation. They don't particularly adore me. We have at least a day before they start searching. If we don't move, they probably won't think about looking for us here, or even on earth."

"Thor will start to look for me soon and he knows I don't have enough power left to to travel between realms. There are risks that he will discover from Heimdal where I am hidden. In a few days, I shall make a protection spell to keep ourselves out of his gaze, but we will need a different location for that because Heimdall will know we were here." He looked over to Tony and raised an eyebrow, silently asking him what he will do.

"I can make JARVIS alert us if anyone comes and after my tests I'm going to built other suits so I can have more than one if we need to fight them. For the new location, don't worry, I have enough secret safehouses to make SHIELD jealous."

Loki hummed in approval and gestured to Tony that he was dismissed. Tony stood and walked over at the door, but turned around just before exiting.

"Take some rest, Reindeer Games, you look like shit." He smirked at the indignant look on the god's face and made his way to his lab.

He countered his security and walked into his lab as it was brought to life. He looked down at his arc reactor. He was worried. It was what kept him alive since Afghanistan, after all, and it never did something like this.

"J, take a scan would you? Oh and hit the music!"

AC/DC blasted in the lab as Tony put himself to work.

~•~

Loki watched as the mortal left his temporary bedroom. As soon as he was out of the door, the god collapsed on the bed, his gaze absentmindedly resting on the ceiling.

 _What am I going to do? Where will I go after this? What will HE do? I can't go back there, I can't. Where then? Asgard? Ha. Like it would be any better. And this mortal, he definitely has a resistance against magic. He said he felt pain around the light on his chest. Hum..._ His lids were dropping fast, so he put an end to his thoughts.

He looked back at the door before –definitely not– snuggling in the comfortable blankets, naively hoping for a peaceful night of sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Ok, sorry, this one took a while, but I made it!  
> Have fun!

_'It was dark, so, so dark. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. His body was in agony. He felt blood dripping from his back, his lungs screaming. His mind was a mess of emotions blurred together. The silence was horrible. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, could only feel._

_Then it was gone. The silence was broken by a voice, the darkness, by a blue light. He could scream and he screamed till his voice was lost once again. The voice was only talking, but it seemed like the thunder. The light was soft, but it seemed blinding like a thunderbolt. Thor. Odin. Asgard. Betrayal. Pain. The blue light shined brighter until it was all he could see. He screamed again.'_

He woke up with a painful gasp and rolled off his bed. He sat on the floor his knees to his chest and his hands in his hair, pulling them as a desperate way to grasp onto reality. His breathing was shallow and wheezing. He felt as if there wasn't enough to air in the room. He was pretty familiar with the concept of panic attacks, but it had been a while since the last time it had happened.

After what could have been minutes as well as hours, he pushed himself up with shaking legs, knowing fully well that he wouldn't get any more sleep tonight.

~•~

Something was poking his leg. Tony tried to ignore it or shrug it off, but it didn't stop. He carefully opened his eyes and looked down at DUM-E who, a tennis ball in its claw, had woken him to play fetch. Tony smiled softly at him and got up, stretching himself.  
"Sorry buddy, I really need to find a solution to this, another time ok?"

The robot buzzed and rolled over to You.

The night before, Tony had got so absorbed in his research of the Arc Reactor that he had fallen asleep, his head on his desk. He had found out, with the reading of his suit and his Arc Reactor made by Jarvis, that his Arc Reactor energy wave had spiked at the same time as the pain and confusion. He didn't know exactly what it meant at that moment, but he had a few hypothesis.

"Sir, Mr Laufeyson is requesting entry."

"Let him in, J."

He turned around in his chair to look at the newcomer. Loki still looked dead, but it seemed worse somehow. There was something in his eyes that was frightening, Tony couldn't quite identify it.

"Hey there, what gives me the honour of your visit?"

"Did you find what out what happened to your light?"

Tony turned his back to the god and opened a file. He could ear Loki walking toward him and his desk to look over Tony's shoulder.

"So, I made my tests and I would say that or your magic stick fucked up my Arc Reactor, or my Arc Reactor is fighting your magic. It would explain the spike in energy, but since magic is a concept still new to me, I can't be sure. If it's the first, we have a problem because it's unpredictable and if it made the energy signature spike, it could probably kill it too. We both know that's not a good thing. The best option would be the latter, if my Arc Reactor is fighting the mind control, it could whether win, lose or nether. If it wins, I'll regain control. If it lose, well, I'll probably be like Clint was. If it continues fighting, I'll be both. In any case, I wouldn't use the same technique than with Clint to take me out of it, we don't know what the shock will do to the Arc Reactor."

He turned his eyes to the god looking at the holograms over his shoulder. A frown was tracing his pensive expression. He didn't look at the genius as he talked.

"Why did it happen two times in this short amount of time, but didn't in almost four hours."

Tony stood up and stretched. The god finally taking his eyes of the holograms to follow the movement. Their eyes met.

"I don't know. The adrenaline? The use of the armour? A coincidence? A hit on the head? Like I said, I can't be sure."

Loki looked at him for a few seconds, stepped over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"You did good, you should get some rest. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

Warmth crept its way in his chest and he fought against a genuine smile, going for a smirk instead. He mocked a bow.

"Everything for its majesty."

The genius stepped out of the lab, not hearing Loki and JARVIS talking behind him.

"Keep me informed. If Stark was to come back to himself, please alert me."

"Of course Mr Laufeyson."

~•~

  
He was deep in a concentration exercise to regain his power faster when JARVIS spoke up.

"Mr Laufeyson, I would request your presence in Sir's bedroom."

Loki raised and eyebrow, surprise and looked at the ceiling.

"And why is that, JARVIS?"

"I was made to take care of Sir and he appears to show signs of distress."

Loki stood up quickly and made his way to Stark's bedroom.

"Is someone else in there? Is he in danger?"

"No, Mr Laufeyson."

Loki paused, his hand on the handle of Stark's bedroom. Was it really necessary? If Stark wasn't in danger and nobody had found them, he didn't need to help him. A shout from the other side of the door broke his thoughts. He turned the handle and stepped inside the room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 8.  
> Have fun!

Steve didn't know if he should feel relieved or panicked. He was in a meeting room with the rest of Avengers, but nobody was talking. Maybe it was from the shock that aliens existed. Maybe it was the guilt that Tony wasn't in the room with them: he was the big talker after all. Maybe everybody was panicking and relieved at the same time. Tony was alive –he had to be or Loki would have left him, wouldn't he?– he made it out of the portal, but was kidnapped by a psychopath god who was having way too much fun while killing people and almost got New York completely destroyed. Tony could be getting mind controlled or, worse, tortured, at this very moment. They needed to do something, but nevertheless, nobody was talking. Nobody dared to break the silence.

It felt like hours before Thor finally broke it.

"Loki used a lot of power during the battle." He said.

"Don't tell me you're worried about him!? What about Tony?! He's the one here you should be worried about!" Clint snapped, wanting to stand up, but kept on his chair by Natasha's firm hand on his shoulder.

Thor didn't even seem to hear him as he continued, deep in thought.

"He couldn't have left earth with this little power..."

"Are you saying that Tony is still on earth?" Bruce interjected.

Thor looked at Bruce before nodding slowly.

"Yes, but not for long. My brother is highly intelligent and an excellent tactician. He won't get beaten so easily. He will leave as soon as he gets enough of his power back."

"How much time do we have?" Natasha spoke up.

Thor deflated, "I don't know exactly, magic never was my strong point. I would say two or three weeks."

"That is...not a lot of time." Steve said.

"And we need to help with New York." Bruce added.

The door opened, revealing Fury, a severe look on his face.

"SHIELD will take care of New York. You go get this motherfucker."

Nobody argued as they got to work.

~•~

  
As soon as the Avengers were dismissed, Bruce was out of the room and in his lab working on a way to track Tony down. Bruce fell back into his chair and slid a hand in his hair with a sigh.

The problem here was that, even under mind-control, that man was still Tony Stark and Tony Stark couldn't be tracked down if he didn't want to be found. And, Bruce concluded, after too much hours trying to find solid leads, that he didn't want to be found. Satellites and local cameras were hacked all around the world. Someone seems to have seen them in Japan and in Paris at the same time a few hours ago and a guy reported to have seen him walk into the Stark Tower just after the battle. Tower that had been inspected carefully, floor by floor, by the best agents in SHIELD.

Sure there were a lot of houses or Manors under the Stark name, but would Tony really go to one that was registered? It would take days to go to all of the registered ones and they would do it, but it would be too easy for a man like Tony Stark.

Bruce over at the clock on the wall indicating 3:11 and decided to call it a night. He always thought clearer when he had a little more sleep in him. He got up, took one last look at his desk and turn off the lights.

~•~

The sounds of fists colliding against a punching bag could be heard from everywhere on the floor the gym was situated. Steve was surrounded by sand and by what was once punching bags, but were now bits of unrecognizable fabric.

First, it was Coulson and after it was Tony. He couldn't believe that he had led them to their lost. He was their Captain and he had failed them. It was under his orders that the Avengers let Loki alone with Coulson and it was because he didn't give his orders that the Avengers didn't catch Iron Man sooner. And now, one was dead and the other was lost and probably in some horrible pain that Loki undeniably enjoyed giving.

Cap punched the bag over and over as he thought about his faults. He had said those horrible things to Tony too. He now knew that it was because of the scepter, but he had thought these things, believed them. He had been a fool and he needed to fix that. He needed to find Tony.

~•~

Natasha and Clint were going through a bunch of supposedly confidential papers about Norse Gods since Thor seemed pretty clueless about how magic was working... and what happened to his brother since he fell of the Bifröst... and how a portal could appear in the sky... Anyway, he was clueless about a lot of things.

"How could you not know that?! You live there and was about to rule the place!" Clint exclaimed, slamming his hand on the desk in exasperation.

Thor frowned and answered confidently "I knew enough about the citizens of Asgard to properly rule the land of my birth. My brother even helped me to see better how to make a rightful king of myself. I simply lack knowledge about magic since I wasn't raised to use it like my brother."

Clint sighted and leaned his forehead on the pile of paper in front of him. "Whatever..." He waved a hand dismissively.

"Stop being lazy, we need to find something if we want to find Tony."

"But Nat, it's been 3 hours and we didn't find anything useful. That idiot could be anywhere. We can't do anything right now. We should go see if Bruce found something."

Natasha stopped her movement and finally looked away from the files in her hands. She looked at Clint straight in the eyes, as if to only communicate that way.

"We need to do something. We need to find him."

She held his gaze for a few more moment before Clint looked away with a nod.

_'I should have done something sooner. I could have stopped Loki, capture him before he got Tony. I could have saved him.'_

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Ok, soooo sorry about the wait. I hope that you guys are having a great holiday with your loved ones...or alone with your cactus because people are too much trouble. (Hey, I don't judge). Anyway, I just hope that you are happy and well. :) soooooo...  
> Here's chapter 9!  
> Have fun!

The sun was raising on the sea. The air was still a bit chilly and the plants were a bit damp from morning dew. The sand was slowly getting warmer under Loki's bare feet. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths then opened them again to look as the sun as it completely appeared over the sea. 

He couldn't believe that he nearly destroyed something so beautiful, so peaceful. He regretted his actions, even if they were not his. Did he destroyed something like this in Jötunheim? Did he ruined such beauties over jealousy, over desire of vengeance? He couldn't bring himself to feel guilty about this yet. All his life, he had believed that they were monsters, that he was one. He felt like one, acted like one and his anger over his family had yet to disappear.

He walked back to the house and went to his room. He needed to start his work on shields to put on himself and Stark to allow them to move undetected. While he walked into his bedroom and sat on his bed, his thoughts drifted to the night before.

Loki had opened the door and found Stark struggling in his sheet, whimpering, screaming and choking as if in unbearable pain. However, he founded himself frozen in front of the look on Stark's face. He couldn't even see his eyes and he still could see that this was a man who had seen torture. Maybe it was not as strong as his own, but it was still the terror of torture that Loki could see on his face. He stayed frozen, a hand on the door and eyes wide, for a long moment until a particularly strong scream made him use a bit of magic on the mortal to appease his sleep. Then, he had left the room, still shocked.

For Loki, it was a surprised, the man seemed to have lived a good mortal life, raised in money and fame and talked with sarcasm and wit. But it was that look of pure agony and terror that marked his mind and disturbed the god's thoughts. How much could a mortal have been through with their poor strength and so short lifetime to have that look, that was too familiar to Loki, on his face. The god stopped working, shocked. Wasn't this mortal alike Loki? Loki who was raised as a prince by the king of Asgard, him who was raised as a prince and by a king of technology. The wit and the sarcasm were both characteristics that could almost define both individuals. And if Loki was right, this man had suffered from torture too. It was quite surprising how much this mortal was similar to the god.

For a few hours, he trained himself to use more and more magic, starting with simple tricks and moving on slowly to the more complicated ones. He was even able to place a small shield around the house, not strong enough to shield it completely from Heimdal's gaze, but enough to be difficult to find. He stood up, satisfied and decided to go check on Stark.

He made his way to the workshop, doors opened by JARVIS as he walked. When he reached the workshop, he stopped a moment to look at the mortal. He was hunched over his computer, fingers moving almost too quickly to see. Loki walked quietly to him and put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump.

"Wha- The hell Loki?! I should put bells on you." Loki ignored him.

"How are your updates going?" He asked instead.

"Great, I almost finished, but I got distracted with hacking into SHIELD." Tony grinned.

"Did you found something interesting?" Loki raised an eyebrow, questioning the relevance of this research.

"Yes, watch this." Tony played the surveillance camera feed taken a few hours ago in the conference room.

"Hum, I hoped that my brother would be a fool, like always, but, unfortunately, he made pretty accurate hypothesis. We will need to find a now location sooner than I thought." He turned he head to look at the mortal and was met with a sadistic grin. 

"We are wanted criminals hunted by the Avengers! This is going to be so much fun! They know about this house, but I have a lot more of them around the globe and even some secret bases. This is going to take them days! And the best part in all that is that we can watch them struggle to find us!" Tony started to laugh, bringing a small grin to the god's face.

After a few second, he dried tears that had fallen from his eyes with his shirt.  
"So, what about this Heimdall guy? Is he going to come running to us?"

"I do not believe so. Asgardians do not have any desire to help earth. Besides, if Odin doesn't ask Heimdall if there is a problem with me, Heimdall won't alert him since I am no longer an imminent danger. Plus, I just made a small shield around the house so to not have the main attention, but if Thor was to go ask him... I will need a stronger spell..."

He stopped talking when he heard the man's breath hitch and quicken. He turned the man's chair so he was facing the god and put one hand on his shoulder

"Stark?" Before he could even think about raising a shield, they were both on the floor, Stark straddling him with his hands on his throat. Loki easily eased the pression on his neck, but before pushing him away, he looked into his eyes. They were brown again. He studied the rest of the man's face, it was contorted in pain and his eyes were flashing with determination and anger.

With a swift movement, Loki reversed their position, pushing Stark's hand against the floor with one of his own and pushing a bit of magic into the mortal to release him from his pain. At the same time, he leaned down and whispered in his hear.

"Calm yourself."

The man went instantly limp in his arms.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 10.  
> Have fun!

_That fucking monster thinks he can control me like that, huh?! There's fire in my chest burning my lungs, my skin, my heart, but it's His fault isn't it?! He did this! He is the one making me suffer, turning me against my teammates. If he thinks he can take everything like that..._

Tony felt a hand on his shoulder to turn him around. He leaped out of his chair without thinking, pushing them to the floor and squeezed his hands around the attacker's throat. However, he was in pain and tired, he couldn't take on a god in this state. Hell, he couldn't take on a god alone anyway. His hand were soon over his head and his back on the floor. The pain intensified and he almost cried out. He felt the familiar feeling of magic going through him.

"Calm yourself." The murderer whispered in his ear.

The pain disappeared and he went limp with relief. He could feel hands on his shoulders, moving him into a sitting position. The adrenalin washed out of his body, leaving him boneless. He felt so good. There was absolutely no pain in his chest for the first time since Afghanistan. Not only was the agony from Loki's control acting up with his Arc Reactor gone, but the constant ache and pressure from the metal in his chest he had grown accustomed to with time was too.

A hand on his chin raised his head, making his eyes meet meet green ones.

"You aren't back yet it seems..."

Tony noticed sweat forming on the god's forehead and his breath, coming out in small pants. Tony frowned before his brain became cotton and he closed his eyes.

~•~

This was bothersome. Loki had not been ready to use a spell this powerful and it was quite exhausting. Plus, the mortal still had brown eyes and Loki judged it best to keep the mortal painless and calm. The hands on his throat weren't especially pleasant, even from a human. Nonetheless, he waited patiently for the moment to pass and for blue eyes to reappear.

When Stark frowned then closed his eyes, he almost sighted in relief. Lids fluttered open and blue eyes met green. Loki released Stark's chin and slowly ended the spell. He would had stood up if he could have moved. A hand appeared in front of him and he took it hesitantly.

"You okay there, Reindeer Games?"

"I...will have to...spend a little more time...in your company, it...seems." Loki panted.

"What?...oh." They stared at each other for a while before Tony moved to help the God to his room.

"Come on, you need to rest. We'll have to move in a day or two and you'll need strength to keep us safe."

The God didn't talk as he let himself be led to his chamber. He felt so exhausted, he was almost sure he would black out and avoid any nightmare. He leaned against the mortal's shoulder sleepily, unconsciously craving the gentle touch. It had been so long since he had last been held. He couldn't remember the last time, but it was probably from his mother.

Loki didn't register getting into his bed. He only remember the softness of the sheets pulled up to his shoulder and a murmured "Goodnight, Lokes" in the night.

~•~

That night, Tony didn't sleep. Ideas were running through his head, so he worked on drafts instead. A few hours later, he was heading to his workshop to make those ideas reality, when he heard the screams. They were screams of agony, of torture, and they were coming from the bedroom next to his. He carefully opened the door before his saw the god struggling in his bed. His face was contorted in agony and his throat was probably burning from the sounds coming out of it.

The genius sat on the bed next to him and buried his hand in the god's hair. He new better than to try to wake him up. Nightmares like this could end pretty violently. Tony slowly pat the hair in his hand and whispered the facts that JARVIS usually told him when he was waking up from a nightmare, wishing that it would calm the terrified god. After a minute, the screams stopped and Loki flinched violently. Then he leaned into the hand in his hair and opened his eyes.

~•~

Loki woke up with a start. There was a careful hand in his hair and a soft voice in his ear. He unconsciously leaned into the touch, his mind still confused and his throat sore.

"–okay. I've got you. You're safe and at my house in Malibu. It's 8am and it's sunny outside. I'm the only one here with you." He heard over his pants, the hand in his hair never halting its movements.

Loki waited a few seconds for his breath to be even again and opened his eyes. They met blue ones. Pain erupted in his chest and confused the god. Why would he feel so sad and disappointed? There was no news there: nobody ever cared about him. Sure they cared about his fame or his power, but never about _him_. Why would it change now with the man who almost lost his friend and planet from his hand? Why would this mortal who is forced to fight against his own to follow a monster's every demands comfort him? Yet...he wanted to believe...

Loki let out a small self-deprecating laugh and turned his eyes away from the mortal before slowly siting up.

"Hey...you wanna talk about it?... I mean, I'm no professional, but I heard that it helps and, I mean, it helps me sometimes...but not always... and I understand if you don't wanna talk about it to me or...at all, really, but...I've never been good at comforting people...I'm trying here and... you're not helping now by smiling creepily while staring at the ground..."

Loki couldn't help grinning at Stark's rambling. Even if it was fake, it was nice to pretend.

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 11.  
> Have fun!

  
"It's been 3 days. How have we not found him yet?"

The agents fidgeted a bit under the Captain's gaze.

"Captain, we are doing everything we can, but we aren't prepared enough and there is a lack of volunteers for the task. Plus, even if we were to find the fugitives, we wouldn't be able to stop them. We are talking about Tony Stark here. Sure, we have sent agents to most of his houses, but it is almost impossible to locate him without going in every house that he owns. We both know that we can't risk that–"

"Then we'll go." Steve cut in. He turned his head to a sight on his right. Bruce past a hand in his hair.

"Steve, you know we can't do that. It would take days and we need to stay together in case we find something. We can't defeat Loki and save a mind controlled Tony Stark if we are separ–"

"WE WOULD AT LEAST DO SOMETHING!" Steve took a shaky breath and slumped in a chair before putting his head in his hands. "We can't just...stay here, let him torture Tony, let him escape...It's your job right? To make hypothesis? Can't you just guess where they are?"

"I already made a lot of assumptions by guessing that they were in one of Tony's houses and if I were to make more, the probability of them being false would be too high and there would be too much chance to miss them."

"Then, we need the military, the police and every agent we can find to search these houses. And Thor...he would be quicker to move from a place to another with his hammer than any of us. Why aren't we using that?"

Bruce stood up and perambulated in front of the Captain. "Yes, that would solve the transportation problem, but we would still need to find a way to move around the AI that is probably in most of the houses and..." Bruce stopped and sighted again."Thor went to Asgard this morning."

"Isn't that a good thing? Wouldn't Heimdall be able to find them?" Steve said.

Bruce sat back down. "He didn't really have the time to explain, but we aren't sure that he'll be able to see them and if he doesn't we are just loosing time right now."

"So we just keep waiting?!"

"We don't have any other choice"

~•~

Heimdall opened the Bifröst and Thor walked confidently to him.

"Heimdall, I come to seek for your help."  
"Before you speak, I will assume that you remember where lies my loyalty and that I'm not allowed to make some decisions or disclose information without the King's direct order or if Asgard isn't in any direct danger?"

Thor hesitated slightly before regaining his composure.

"I need to find Loki. He has one of Midgard's mightiest heroes and used the power of the Tesserac to turn him against his realm. This man has a lot of power in Midgard and could cause chaos if Loki was to use it. Besides, Loki is a prisoner of Asgard and shouldn't be allowed to roam free in another realm."

"Thor, I do not have the power to give you that information and you know it. Loki doesn't have the Tesserac and isn't an imminent danger for Asgard. You'll need to ask an audience with our King."

"We do not have the time, Heimdall!"

Heimdall stayed silent, hands on his sword and gaze unwavering in front of him. Thor growled in frustration and headed to the throne Room.

When he reached it, he glared at the guards, pushed past them and opened the doors. The Allfather was there, on his throne and eyeing his son carefully. Thor kneeled.

"You may rise" said Odin. He paused for a moment, but started talking again as soon as Thor opened his mouth. "I know the reason of your presence, but I agree with Heimdall on the matter of Loki..." Thor opened his mouth again and Odin raised one hand to stop him. "However, even if he isn't an imminent danger to Asgard, he IS a being of mischief and lies and could potentially become a threat if we do not contain him. This is why I will allow our Gatekeeper to give you the information you need to do so."

~•~

Thor reappeared in SHIELD's headquarters late-afternoon and was immediately greeted by two assassins, a mad scientist and a supersoldier. The Captain opened his mouth first.

"So? Did you found them?"

"Not exactly..." He paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "My brother's powers increased in the last few days. He is recuperating. Heimdall detected a small shielding spell, but couldn't find its exact position. However, he could tell me that they are still in America."

"That does help, but will he be able to tell us if they change country?" Clint asked.

"He believes that Loki's shields will become too powerful and will only allow him to see on which realm they are."

They looked at each other in silence for a moment, before Bruce broke it.

"Then we don't have time to lose. I've already eliminated Tony's houses that are outside the country. Now, we need you, Thor, to bring one of us with you and break into every house before they decide to change their hiding place."

"What about the AI?" asked Natasha.

Bruce didn't turn his eyes from his Starkpad when he answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You have a hammer, use it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm gonna be weird and ask you some totally intrusive questions, because I'm a curious little niffler.
> 
> So, hey, how are you? (Yeah, I try to start smoothly, you know.)  
> Where are you from?  
> What's your gender? (Told you I'm weird, but I'm honestly curious about who is reading me)  
> What's your fandoms? Ships?  
> What do you think will happen next in this fanfic?
> 
> You guys can totally ignore that, answer part of the questions or talk more. I'll be happy to read and answer your comments. 
> 
> See you!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! You guys are awesome. I honestly didn't expect answers to the questions I asked you in the previous chapter, but I got a lot! I don't know if they are all true because, if it was me, I would have probably invented myself a life, but this is still really fun to read and I can imagine people all around the world reading me. It's the best feeling really. Thank you!  
> Soooooo,  
> Here's chapter 12.  
> Have fun!

  
They had breakfast together, talking about the technicalities of their plan to escape the Avengers until Loki could recover. It was surprisingly peaceful and they both had missed those moments of warmth, safety. It wasn't something you could easily have when you have thrust issues, been tortured and been wearing masks for most of your life. It was nice.

Tony was talking about his safe houses when their conversation got cut off by JARVIS.

"Sir, the Avengers have chosen a course of action to find you."

"Show me, J."

The television turned on to show a footage of the Avengers deciding to break into every house Tony legally owns and try to disable JARVIS. Tony frowned and groaned, putting his head in his hands and pushing the palms into his eyes. Why did they have to break everything?

Tony sighted, straighten himself and looked at Loki with exasperation.

"Really, if they wanted an invitation, they only needed to ask."

~•~

The flight was worst than Steve had imagined. Sure, he knew it would be fast, but he didn't expect the waves of nausea and the constant disorientation. When they arrived at the first house on their list, he was more than happy to find the ground again. He took a few uncertain steps before looking up at the house in front of them. It was truly beautiful. It was in an almost circular shape and had windows on almost every walls, as big as the walls themselves. Steve could smell the sea and the air was fresh on his skin.

Thor and him hid themselves from the sure mass of camera waiting for them at the front of the house. He was about to ask Thor if he knew where would be the best place to break into the house when he heard a sound coming from it, or more especially from Iron Man coming out of it and walking straight towards them. As he got closer, the sound became more precise and Steve recognized it to be a song.

 _I heard that you were talking shit_  
_And you didn't think that I would hear it_  
_People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up_  
_So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack_  
_Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out_  
_That's right take your pom-poms down, getting everybody fired up_

The next thing he knew, Iron Man was standing before them, starring for a bit before Tony's voice broke the silence.

"Cap, Point Break, I've been waiting for you! I heard you wanted a tour of my house so I left a guide for you."

"Tony–" Steve started, but cut himself off when the Iron Man mask opened to show that the armour was empty. Probably controlled by JARVIS or at distance by Tony.

Without another word, the armour turned around and walked back to the house, leaving the door open. Thor and Steve walked uncertainly into the house, following the silent armour around, who had kept playing the song over and over again. It was starting to irritate Steve and it was obviously a warning from Loki and Tony.

 _Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one_  
 _So I'm gonna fight, gonna give it my all_  
Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you  
That's right I'm the last one standing, another one bites the dust

They stopped at the front door again after a while and they finally broke out of their shocked state.

"Man of Iron, you need to come back to us. You know your loyalty doesn't lie with Loki.–" he got cut off by the armour stepping closer menacingly.

"Listen, Avengers," he started, his voice filled with distaste. "I knows where my loyalty lies and it certainly isn't with you. I'm trying really hard here not to shoot your "secret organization" down and use my newest missile on every one of you because it wouldn't be advisable for Loki. However, I still know a lot of things that could come in handy if you continued to try breaking into my houses or simply try to find me." A gun lift from the armour's shoulder to prove his point.

Steve decided that they couldn't convince Tony while he was still under Loki's control. They needed to bring him back and he certainly wasn't here. He put a hand on Thor' shoulder.

"We need to go back." Thor looked as if he wanted to argue, but nodded stiffly before taking off with Steve.

~•~

Tony watched them go before taking of the control mask and groaning. He was tired, Loki and him had needed to leave extremely quickly and while it didn't surprise the genius, he had worked without a break all day and a headache was starting to appear behind his eyelids. He stood up and walked over to the front of the plane. He poured himself a glass of whiskey and slumped in a seat. Loki looked over from the passenger seat beside him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"How did it go?"

"Not bad, but they are so exhausting. They needed me to spell it out for them." He looked at the sky through a window of the plane.

Loki hummed looking outside as well before a though crossed his mind.

"How aren't we noticed flying like this?"

Tony turned his head back in his direction, a wicked spark in his eyes and a grin on his lips.

"In this world of ever evolving technology, I am the king. If I don't want to be noticed, I wont."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I was writing, I had this song in my head. Then I thought about how Tony used songs a lot in the movies –even if this isn't really his style– and I thought: "Why not?" So, there it is. I should probably be sorry, but I'm really not.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 13.  
> Have fun!

__

  
As the days passed, they travelled frequently. One night they would sleep in a mansion in Russia and the next, they would crash in a cramped bed in a secret lab in Australia. However, Loki never found himself bothered by the change of emplacement. He would eat, plan and even joke with Tony while recovering.

He knew as he looked at the mortal that he had needed this. He had needed someone laughing with him. Even when he was young, he had only a few friends since most of the Asgardians thought the use of magic as a weapon to be feminine and a form of cowardice. When he developed his magic along with his wit to protect himself, he earned the nicknames Silver tongue and Trickster. He convinced himself then that he didn't need anybody.

However, he new fully well now that he had been wrong. He needed at least someone to have his back. The problem there was that he was getting too attached. The mortal had truly earned his reputation of witty genius. He was brilliant. Loki had watched him work, saw the grace in his movements brought by years of experience. Sometimes, he would watch him sleep, staring at the man's back while fighting the desire to seek for his warmth. When he smiled, truly smiled, his whole face would illuminate and little wrinkles would appear around his eyes. Furthermore, when he was waking up, his lids heavy with sleep, his bed hair all over the place and showing soft skin just above his hips as he stretched, Loki needed to avert his eyes to stop the inappropriate thoughts worming their way into his head. Loki was growing fonder of the man each day he spent in his presence.

Yet, Loki hated the man's eyes. The unnatural blue felt like a dagger in his heart every time Tony looked at him. It was a constant reminder of his mistakes and everything he could never have. Although, he caught himself a lot staring at the blue as if it would go back to it's original color. He knew it was all fake, but he never lost this little bit of hope that it was the real Tony who helped him, joked with him and made the ever lasting loneliness disappear.

"Lokes, you okay there?"

"Of course, what were you saying?"

Tony looked sceptically at Loki before deciding to let it go. "I said that we could probably go to Canada. I've got a farm, sort of, somewhere in Alberta we could stay there for a while since we lost the Avengers for the time being. What do you say?"

Loki looked around their current sleeping place. It was covered in dust and didn't have any windows. A small metal table in a corner of the room was filled with schematics and plans for new armours and weapons. There was only one small bed and they needed to take turns at sleeping. Not that either of them was really sleeping. Nightmares and panic attacks weren't rare.

"Fresh air would do us some good."

"Yeah, this isn't the best place ever," Tony looked around, looking almost disgusted. "But hey, it's better than you being in SHIELD's custody, isn't it?"

"Well, to speak from memory, there were more windows." He grinned at Tony.

Tony put a hand on his chest, trying to look offended, but failing because of the small grin on his lips. "I am wounded, I offer you a palace and you degrade it by comparing it to SHIELD's hospitality."

They slowly started repacking the few things they previously got out off their bags for the three days stay.

~•~

Tony was exhausted. He felt in a constant battle with himself, with his mind. It was a really weird feeling. Sometimes, it manifested itself in waves of pain, but, most of the time, strong unwanted emotions just came and went. At the beginning, it was only anger. Pure intense anger. However, with time, hints of resignation, understanding and despair stated to make an appearance. Either way, it was unwanted and Tony needed to fight them at all time, never letting his guard down to not let himself change back to his anti-Loki self.

The point was that he was exhausted and he was starting to really feel it. Running from the Avengers all the time probably didn't help, but he couldn't let them catch Loki.

Loki... He was like a drug. You know, when you get high for the first time and you'reha feeling so good you could die at the moment and be happy? Just before the big crash that would start a long horrible dependence? Tony was always at that highest peek. He was getting praised –which he had gotten a lot, but almost never sincerely. Humans always want something when they praise someone– and could joke around freely with the god. It was fun. If only he could command his brain to stop seeing this big crash ahead. He knew the exhaustion was only the beginning. One day, he would start feeling the pain all the time and his arc reactor would probably go out. At least, now, he knew that the Arc Reactor was fighting the magic. Only...it was losing...which wasn't really a good sign.

He looked over at the figure playing with a dagger on the small bed.

_I'll at least enjoy the moment a little...before I can't anymore._

~•~

The first thing they could see as they left the private jet, was the mountains. The snow at their peak reflected the sunlight. A small stream was cutting through the forest by the welcoming little chalet. At the right of said chalet was a stable accommodating four beautiful horses. It was a truly magnificent sight.

"I called this guy I had hired to take care of the house and the horses. He won't come back for a while." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, the fresh air erasing a bit of his fatigue.

Tony took out the keys to the chalet and opened the door. The scent of wood filled their nose as they put their luggage by the stairs leading to the two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms. They walked through the living room to the kitchen and dining room. Glancing briefly at the stable through the window, Tony turned around to face Loki, who was eyeing him curiously.

"So, wanna go for a ride?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so hard! I'm trying to develop their relationship slowly for it to be credible, but...argh...


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 14.  
> Have fun!

  
When Sir got kidnapped Jarvis didn't know what to do, he couldn't betray Sir's orders, but he couldn't let him get hurt either. So, he kept an eye on him. If Loki as much as looked like he would hurt Sir, Jarvis would take him out.

However, with time, he found that he not only didn't hurt him, but he took care of him, making diner and telling him to go to sleep after too much hours spend working. Jarvis still didn't approve of the mind-control Sir was under, but he understood that nothing could be done at the moment. He could only hope that the Arc Reactor would hang on until Loki's departure.

When they arrived at Sir's chalet in Alberta, Jarvis started to notice signs of exhaustion in Sir's behaviour. His movements were slightly sluggish, he appeared to have headaches more often and half moons were starting to form under his eyes.

Jarvis attributed that to the stress of being on the run, but even after a week in Alberta, which is considered to be a peaceful environment, it was only getting worse. Sir was sleeping more, but wasn't getting any better. His appetite also diminished. It was worrying, so Jarvis started making daily scans on Sir and found out the magic was slowly drawing the Arc reactor's energy out.

However, the only solution was to remove the magic, which the AI couldn't do.

~•~

Tony could feel the magic trying to push him deeper in himself and the energy in his heart pushing back. The Tesserac VS The Arc Reactor. If you take one out, the other will push so hard, it'll take everything out on his way.

_Good fight guys. Now could you finish this outside? It's getting pretty messy._

He was still angry, so angry, but he could see now, as if he was slowly becoming one with himself again. It was terrifying really, but, at least, he didn't feel the pain anymore and he could see what was happening with his body.

They were currently on horses, taking a walk in the woods. Yep. Tony Stark was taking a walk. On a horse. In the woods. With Loki. Isn't that wonderful?

_I hate my life_

There was a peaceful silence only broken by the sound of animals and the wind against the trees' leaves. Tony was watching Loki carefully even before the god started talking.

"It is beautiful around here."

"Yeah, I never really came here before." His controlled self started. "Sure, I knew about it, but it was supposed to be a chalet for our summer family trips. Like that ever happened."

_Idiot, what the hell are you doing? Shut up!_

Loki eyed him carefully, unaware of the argument occurring in Tony's mind.

"Families are always condemned to betray one of their own's thrust."

_Seems to know what he's talking about._

"You speak from experience?"

_FUCKING IDIOT! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?!?!_

There was a long pause where Loki was staring ahead blankly and Tony was internally freaking out before Loki spoke again.

"Let's say that my parents weren't what they were expected to be and didn't act like they were supposed to act."

"Is this why you hate Thor? Were they doing their job only on him? Was it because you were adopted?"

_Fucking hell man...I give up._

Loki flinched slightly, but answered anyway.

"I do not only dislike him for that, but, yes, this is part of the issue. What about you? What were their reasons for their absence?"

"My father was obsessed with finding our dear Captain – and never succeeded by the way. SHIELD found him – and my mother was always drunk. So, I couldn't spend time with them often. When I got older, they send me to a boarding school." He cleared his throat and changed his voice slightly to imitate someone promoting a product. "How to get rid of your child in one easy step, by Maria and Howard Stark." His gaze fell on the ground, uncomfortable.

The silence stretched out for a few minutes again. A hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up into the god's understanding eyes. Warmth filled his chest and he managed a small smile.

_Aww, man! Get a grip! This is obviously a case of Stockholm syndrome._

The god removed his hand. Tony, already missing the contact, looked up.

"We should get back. It's getting dark."

When they came back at the chalet, they fed the horses, ate and went to bed with only a few words, each thinking about their life choices and their future.

~•~

He had confessed way more than he though. He trusted Tony too much and it was getting dangerous. Loki was painfully aware that he would need to leave soon and all this information would go to the Avengers. He would be able to teleport in a few days, at most. But, would he really be ready to leave behind the only comforting person he had met in centuries? Where would he go? Who would accept a Jotun but Jotunheim? Where else could a monster could go but with their own kind? Like they wouldn't kill him on sight. Ah, the irony. Rejected even by the monsters. And there was Him to think about, He would run after him to make Loki pay.  
Loki turned over on his back in the bed. Then, where would he go?

Figuring he wouldn't get any sleep at the moment, he got up quietly, his warm feet bare against the chilly wooden floor. The stairs creaked as he went down, a hand on the ramp. He sat down in a comforter by the window, looking outside absentmindedly. The moonlight was reflecting on the stream, giving the sight a surreal vibe. He thought back to the few weeks he had spent in Tony's company. He had felt better than he had been for a long time. Even if danger was still there, chasing after him and nightmares were hunting his nights, he was happy. When he closed his eyes, he no longer felt the cold and pain, but the warmth in Tony's genuine smile.

_Would I be able to give this up? To let him go? Would I be able to do that for him? To let him hate me again?_

He knew he couldn't continue this way much longer. He wasn't an idiot and could see the fatigue in Tony's eyes. He should remove the spell as soon as possible to avoid causing him more pain...but...he was scared. Scared to lose him...and to be alone again.

Jarvis spoke suddenly, as if reading his thoughts: "Caring doesn't mean anything if it leads the person we care about to their own destruction."


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Little warning here: I can't do politic. No, really. I'm extremely bad at paying attention to this kind of things. So, if this is just not possible, I'm sorry, but, like one of you pointed out, it is kind of important to the story and it will make it more interesting.  
> Oh and one last thing to be sure we're all on the same page! I'm totally driving out of the Marvel movies' tracks. There is no link with how they did things in the movies beyond the first few chapters of this fanfic.   
> That's it!  
> Here's chapter 15.  
> Have fun!

Their days were calm, filed with nature and peace while their nights were still plagued with horror and fear. They often found each other by the window, eyes not seeing and vivid memories haunting their minds. They would sit together in silence. Sometimes, a few words were exchanged.

Loki learned that something as basic as water could terrorize someone and Tony learned about the agony of being the monster feared by his own family. They already knew the rest: being hated, being ignored, never being good enough, blood, love and stars, they both understood the pain.

They couldn't go in town anymore. The last time they did, posters of them were all over the place and every TV channel was talking about them. They quickly went back home before being recognized and decided to teleport food from store storages for the time being.

Now, they were sitting on the couch in the living room, watching Star Trek –Loki, how could you have not seen this? No, don't even try, being on earth for only two months isn't a good reason.– with a bowl of popcorn covered in butter and salt –Don't make that face, you'll like it.– and, in fact, Loki was enjoying it. Tony was leaning on his side, looking relaxed and happy. Loki wasn't even listening to the movie, but to Tony commenting it. His face would scrunch up when he found science inaccuracies and he would ramble about how it couldn't be true and what the characters should do instead. Loki would absorb every word and expressions with a soft smile.

~•~

Tony felt safe now. Each day, he became less and less in conflict with his controlled self. The god and him had talked about a lot and Tony was understanding him a bit more each time. He still didn't trust him completely and he knew that Loki hadn't revealed all the details about the why and the how of his attack on Earth, but he knew enough to see that Loki had suffered too much. Everybody knows that too much suffering alters one's judgment. Tony himself was a victim of that fact. Maybe pain is the cause of a distinct kind of insanity. Anyway, all unforgivable mistakes Loki had made were caused by pain and Tony couldn't blame him for it. He would be an hypocrite if he did and Tony Stark was a lot of thing, but not an hypocrite.

When his controlled self started sharing with the god about his nightmares, he was hesitant, but as he talked, he felt that a weight had been lift off of his shoulders. When the god shared about his too, Tony knew that they had found a confident in each other and they could learn to trust the other with time.

As they were watching Star Trek, Tony was surprised to find out that Loki not only tolerated his constant bantering, but seemed genuinely interested in what he was saying. Again, warmth blossomed in his chest at the attention and Tony couldn't even bring himself to complain. He talked over the whole movie, but Loki didn't seem to mind. At the last scene, his fatigue came back like a punch and he fell asleep.

~•~

Just as the credits came up, Loki felt a weight drop on his shoulder. He looked down and his eyes met a fluffy brown haired head on his shoulder. He eased an arm around the sleeping man's shoulders and rearranged them so they were lying on the couch, the genius' head over the god's heart and an arm around Loki's waist.

They laid there in each other's arms while Loki, still awake, but lost in his thoughts, was mindlessly stroking Tony's hair. He looked around the dark room dreaming of a world where they were not wanted because of his crimes. Maybe even a world where he hadn't committed these crimes. Ah, who was he kidding, he was the god of mischief and lies. He tightened his embrace on his mortal before dropping a gentle kiss in the mob of hair and smiling softly as he let sleep take over.

_I sometimes wonder if I am not the one under his spell._

~•~

Tony woke slowly and quickly noticed the comforting warmth surrounding him. He opened his eyes and looked up to Loki's face. Tony was surprised to see how relaxed he looked in his sleep. There were no calculating looks, no wary frowns and no smirks. He looked peaceful and was truly beautiful. Carefully, Tony raised a hand to caress his cheek.

_You're so cheesy. Stop it, you're not supposed to do feelings._

After a few minutes, he felt Loki stir and his embrace tighten. He looked up in Loki's eyes and watched them open sleepily with a strange fascination. They stared at each other in silence for a long moment, neither wanting to ruin the moment. Unfortunately, JARVIS didn't get the memo and decided to make his presence known.

"Sirs, I believe that you would found interesting what is happening presently around the world."

They opened the TV, curious. It was already on the news.

"–anifestations all around the world for a change in leadership. In fact, last week, a letter from a stranger, who desired to stay anonymous, was published in the New York Times. The man stated 'that with all the grief and fear caused by the attack and the fact that Loki is still free, we blinded ourselves to the fact that our leaders gave the authorization to send a missile to destroy New York during the attack'. That statement was the starting point of an enormous movement of manifestations all around America. This movement gradually took roots in all democratic government all around the world."

The footage changed to show people with signs screaming outside of government buildings and vandalizing cities. Then, politicians started to riposte.

"We have everything under control. We are currently in negotiations with people of high ranks to make precautions to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again.

"We believe that this situation endangered the population's thrust in our leaders and it is unacceptable for an organization to fail at his duty as the population's voice."

The reporter came back on the screen.

"Information coming again from an anonymous source provided that the Aliens were coming from a portal that the Avengers had discovered how to close before the missile had even reached New York. It also gave our scientists enough information to conclude that if the missile in question had destroyed New York, it wouldn't have destroyed the portal or the mothership and Aliens would still be invading Earth. I believe that we all owe Iron Man's quick thinking. Melissa Black, New York City."

Loki and Tony blinked, shocked, before grinning at each other.

"That should keep them occupied for a moment."


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Wouhou, we've reached 500 kudos and 10 000 hits! You guys are awesome!  
> Here's chapter 16.  
> Have fun!

"What is it that you said again? I remember something along the lines of 'SHIELD will take care of New York. You go get this motherfucker.', but I must be wrong because you didn't take care of shit!"

"Agent Barton–"

"Oh, don't you 'Agent Barton' me! Did you really think people would forget? I mean, ok, New York getting attacked by Aliens and a crazy Norse God –which is still roaming around with Iron Man, just a reminder– was a bit destabilizing and disturbing, but people are not dumb. They do not forget that someone high ranked has send a damn nuke that would have destroyed the city–"

"Barton! Would you shut up now, before I make you?" Clint snapped his mouth shut angrily.

Fury eyed silently the Avengers before him. Captain Rogers had his arms crossed and was glaring at him. Romanoff and Banner were both wearing impassible expressions. Thor wasn't present, but Clint seemed angry enough for two. Fury leaned slowly over his desk and put his elbows on it, crossing his fingers.

"Listen there, you motherfuckers. I wasn't the one who send this damn nuke, the Council did. They're on top of the fucking food-chain and we all have to live with their shitty decisions, because we can't do jackshit against them. They were counting on people actually forgetting about the nuke if we drowned them in informations about the Attack and Loki. They are pretty angry about the article that outed them. Now, we need to find Loki, make up some story about the nuke so people believe that it wasn't send on New York on purpose or some shit, find fucking Stark since he knows how to deal with this sort of mess and tell the planet to calm the fuck down."

He sighted and leaned back. He turned his chair around, his back to them, as a sign for them to get the fuck out, before he finished his monologue.

"Until then, you keep your mouth shut and help New York in its grieving."

~•~

They quickly started to share a bed after that. They didn't even talk about it. One night, Tony had woken up screaming from a nightmare to Loki caressing his hair and murmuring reassurances in his ear. When he had gotten up to leave, Tony had grasped his wrist and tugged him back to bed. They had stared into each other's eyes before Loki had sighted and laid on the bed beside Tony. They had both slept in each other's arms and the nightmares hadn't been of their usual violence.

Both Tonys started feeling more and more safe with Loki, but there was more to it, a sort of connection. And he wasn't an idiot, he knew by the way Loki looked at him when he thought nobody was looking, eyes filed with fondness –yes, fondness. No, he's not drunk, shut up–, that he felt it too. That's when the genius started planning.

Yes he was attracted to the god of Mischief and Lies. Yes he wasn't really stable, but was Tony any better? Yes Pepper and Rhodey would kill Tony if the Avengers didn't achieve that before them. Yes it was an oblivious case of the Stockholm Syndrome.Yes it was a bad, bad, terrible idea.

But, would all that stop Tony Stark? Of course not!

From this time on, whenever they were together, Tony would flirt and touch Loki: an arm around his shoulder during a movie, their feet tangled while eating, a hand on his back while walking, etc. And it was working, Loki never tensed or avoided the contact. He even reciprocated sometimes, but he never initiated. However, that didn't discourage Tony.

They were laughing about the stupidity of the world while watching the news when he noticed Loki looking at him like _this_ again. He stopped mid-rant to look back at him. He brought a hand up to caress Loki's cheek and the god leaned against the touch, eyes closed.

 _Here we go_.

Tony closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Loki's. He could feel their breath mixing up. The sound of the TV in the background suddenly seemed so far away and Tony could only hear their breathing and their hearts beating like crazy.

Tony leaned down to capture Loki's lips in his, but, as they made contact, Tony found himself projected across the room.

~•~

Day after day, Tony was more touchy-feely. Of course Loki noticed and, having missed this sort of contact, he couldn't refuse it, even if he felt like he was taking advantage. So, what if their ankles were pressed together during dinner or if they would seek comfort in bed together? It was only to beat the loneliness accumulated with the years. Well that's what Loki was trying to convince himself of. However, he couldn't pretend not to want more. He wanted to touch that bit of skin showing under his shirt when Tony stretched like a cat as he was waking up. He wanted to kiss those lips adorning this adorable smile when Loki praised him on his inventions. He wanted to pet this messy mob of hair the genius was constantly trying to comb back with his hands.

But he couldn't.

He didn't want a puppet, he wanted a lover. Someone he could cherish, love and who could reciprocate his feelings. Tony couldn't. Not really. But it didn't stop Loki from hoping.

When they sat together on the couch one night to rant about the stupidity of Midgard, Loki couldn't take his eyes of the gorgeous genius at his side. He was so immersed that he couldn't resist leaning into the hand on his cheek and closing his eyes, completely relaxed and happy. After a few seconds, warmth enveloped him and lips brushed his.

_NO! NO! You can't do that to him! He will never forgive you if you take advantage of him like this!_

He opened his eyes, panicking, and pushed Tony away quickly. He vaguely registered a thump at the other end of the room before he looked over at the end of the couch where Tony should have been.

His eyes widened and he looked down at his hands. They were trembling.

"Tony?" His voice was trembling too. He knew what he had done, but he didn't want to believe it.

He stood up carefully and walked over at where he had heard the thump.

He noticed the streak of blood sliding down the wall first. Then, he saw the slumbered form of his genius on the ground.

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haaaaaaaaaa, this took longer than expected!  
> I had an idea so I had to rewrite this chapter so it could work.  
> I hope you guys are well.  
> Here's Chapter 17.  
> Have fun!

  
His ears were ringing. He could vaguely feel the cold of his wooden floor slipping through his clothes and wetness on his face. So, he was lying on the floor. Wait, that wasn't right. Wasn't he on the couch a moment ago? He grunted and tried to sit up or open his eyes, but waves of nausea stopped him short. He fell back down and squeezed his eyes shut while taking deep breaths to try to damper the nausea.

He didn't know how long he laid there, trying not to vomit, but when he felt hesitant hands on his shoulders, he flinched. Tony couldn't think about who was touching him or even if he was in danger. It was hurting too much. When the hands started moving him, he blacked out.

~•~

Darkness was all he could see. Silence, all he could hear. His body felt horribly heavy and he couldn't even try to open his eyes to figure out where he was. His mind was confused and numb, he couldn't even panic.

After what felt like years of pure silence, immobility and darkness, he could finally hear a distant humming and could see light behind his eyelids. Suddenly, as if a spell had been lift, his body was his to move again.

He stood up carefully before slowly opening his eyes to meet a floating blue light. If he hadn't been this tired and confused, he would probably have made a joke about him not singing enough to be Sleeping Beauty, but he just followed it.

As he was walking he noticed how the blue light was getting brighter and bigger in the dark space surrounding him. He walked until he finally came across the heart of the light, the brightest point which looked like a small blue sun releasing lightning bolts like streaks of light.

He didn't notice the much smaller, lighter blue light until it flickered off for a few second before it came back to life even dimmer than before. Tony approached slowly and lift his hand as if to touch it, but thought better of it.

 _I really don't stand a chance, don't I?_ He sighed.

**_No, you really don't._ **

Tony quickly turned around, arm raised automatically as if the use his absent hand repulsor. He looked around warily until he finally noticed a shadow close to the heart of the bigger blue light. He approached slowly, heart thumping in his chest.

When he could finally see the shadow more clearly, he gasped in shock. In front of him was standing a nearly perfect copy of himself, its bright Tesserac blue eyes the only apparent difference between them.

 ** _You don't_** , it repeated, **_We're not dumb, Stark. We both know what this means. Are you really going to fight it even when you know it is a lost battle?_**

 _And what'll happen then? Will the Tesserac push too hard when the reactor gives in? Will we die? You're right on one point, we're not dumb. We know how dangerous this situation could turn up for us._ Tony replied, still shaken to meet the part of himself who was mind controlled by the Tesserac.

The genius' shadow approached even more, a peaceful smile on its face.

_**But what if we lived, what if Loki saved us. We care for him a lot, you can't deny that. Wouldn't we be happy with him, free of our problems and responsibilities, free of the world's expectations.** _

_You know the world still needs Iron Man. We can't just disappear forever, or let this kill us._

**_Would it really matter? We destroyed so much and we just managed to pay the world back for our mistakes by flying the missile in the portal and avoiding an Alien invasion. Pepper and the Avengers can take care of everything. They don't need you to make a mess in everything they do. Don't you believe this to be a good time to go before killing and destroying even more with our ego?_ **

The shadow was so close, it was talking directly into Tony's ear. Tony tried to look unaffected, clinging desperately to that little bit of resolve still hidden in him.

**_Let go Tony. Let us finally be happy._ **

~•~

Loki approached the slumbered form hesitantly, dread filing his stomach.

_Please let him be alright. Please. Please. Please..._

When he reached Tony, he put his trembling hands on the man's shoulder and used his magic to see how much damage he had made.

He let out a sigh of relief when he heard a beating heart and felt the movement of the man's breathing. However, Tony still required care for his multiple injuries: a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist and the cut on the back of his head which had bled profusely down the wall Tony had hit.

Loki moved Tony into his arms and walked them to the genius' room since he knew he would only aggravate Tony's situation if he used his magic to get there faster. He felt like laughing and crying at the same time. Laughing because of the ridiculousness of the situation. How could he have hurt Tony like that? How could he have panicked over getting kissed and forgot about how he was physically stronger than humans? How pathetic was he to loose control like that? On top of everything, he was crying because he kept destroying everything he cared about. Not that he would ever confirm that fact to anyone.

He gently put Tony down on his bed and sat next to him to begin treating his injuries. After a few hours, he had treated the cut, the shoulder and the arm and had done what he could for the concussion. Tony would still need two to three days of rest, but he would be alright.

Loki felt drained and laid down beside Tony before falling asleep, a hand over his genius' beating heart.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 18.  
> Have fun!

It took an entire day for Tony to open his eyes again. An entire day of Loki holding his hand, caressing his hair and fretting over his unconscious genius. There is no need to mention how relieved Loki felt when he finally opened his eyes.

Tony blinked, eyes unfocused, until he noticed Loki and their joined hands. He looked up again and gave the most confused impression Loki had ever seen.

"...What..."

"Go back to sleep, Tony. You need rest to heal from that concussion." He carded a hand through Tony's hair gently.

Tony opened his mouth as if to protest, but his sleepiness took over and he leaned into the hand in his hair and let his eyes close again.

~•~

When Tony awoke, it took him a few seconds to remember what had happened. His head was throbbing –awesome, a concussion– and parts of his body felt numb. He opened his eyes carefully, flinching because of the light coming through the window. He turned his head away, clinching his eyes shut. When it didn't hurt as much, he opened them again and was surprised to see Loki sleeping in an arm chair beside his bed, a book opened on his lap.

He felt extremely tired, but his bladder decided that he needed to use the bathroom. He carefully sat in his bed, his movements sluggish and his eyes half opened. However, when he tried to stand up, his legs gave out from under him and he tumbled to the floor.

The sound woke Loki up and the god immediately picked him up and back in his bed.

He carded his hand through Tony's hair and looked at him worriedly.

"What is it that you desire? Are you in any pain?"

Tony internally blushed in shame. Why was he so pathetic?

"...Just have to go to the bathroom, Reindeer Games."

Loki nodded, picked Tony up again and carefully held him up while he dealt with his business.

When they were back, Loki was muttering under his breath.

"What is it?" Tony asked.

Loki looked up. "You're not supposed to be this tired. Are you in pain?" He hesitated, biting his lower lip."Do...do, you remember what happened?"

Tony frowned, confused, before it came back to him.

"Oh...well that's awkward."

Loki hummed. "I will admit that I am particularly...comfortable with your company, but you and I are both in no condition to be anything more than what we are currently."

"And what are we currently, Loki?" They stared at each other for a few seconds before Loki stood up hastily.

"You should rest. You shouldn't be this exhausted with the healing spells I used on you." He was out of the door before Tony could even open his mouth to answer.

~•~

For the next three days, Tony was stuck in bed, only having enough energy to get up to eat or use the bathroom. Loki was restless. He had tried several times to find out what was wrong with Tony, but couldn't see anything.

JARVIS, however, had a pretty good idea of what was happening to his creator.

At the end of the third day, JARVIS had locked Loki up in three rooms, had made every light turn off when he entered a room and made every shower he took, cold.

"You know exactly what the cause of Sir's exhaustion is. Stop being purposely oblivious!"

"I am not, he only needs more time to recover from the wounds and shock."

"He doesn't. He isn't getting any better. You need to do something about it!"

"I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!" _No I don't._ "He only needs a bit of time to regain his strength." _No, he doesn't._ "He'll be perfectly healthy in no time."

_No, he won't._

~•~

He was tired of feeling tired. After three days of sleep, eat, sleep, he couldn't take it anymore. So, when he woke up a morning with a bit more energy than usual, he took the opportunity to go down to his workshop. It was a lot smaller than the one at the Tower, but it was better than nothing.

As he was getting down the stairs, Loki intercepted him

"What are you doing up?! You should be in bed. You almost died."

"But I didn't!" He sighed, still moving toward the workshop. "Come one, Loki, my arc Reactor hung on, the Tesserac didn't kill me, I'm fine. Stop hovering. Besides, I'm tired of staying in bed and be unproductive."

He opened the door to the workshop and Loki followed him worriedly. Tony briefly wondered when the god had started acting so protective, but shook off the question a second later.

"Jarvis, open up the–" Pain suddenly erupted from his chest and he only managed to hold himself up by grabbing his workshop table with all his will. The last thing he registered before black engulfed him was that agonized scream that tore up his throat.

~•~

_**Let go, Tony.** _

_**Let us finally be happy.** _

Tony thought about the lives he had destroyed, the dreams he had crushed and the families he had decimated. He thought about the people he had failed: Howard, Maria, Jarvis, Pepper, Rhodey, Yinsen, Coulson, Captain Fucking America and the rest of the Avengers. He thought about his fears and weakness, his past and mistakes.

However, if there was one thing he knew better than anyone else about himself it was how stubborn and proud he was. Tony Stark would not just _let go_ , he would not go down without a fight.

Even as the Arc Reactor was rapidly dying, he did not back down. He concentrated on staying in his own body and fighting for his mind and life. He did not know concretely how he was doing it, but Tony was a man of adaptation and he would adapt to preserve his own life.  
When the Arc Reactor finally died, his last thought before the Tesserac's light engulfed him was that he would not die without a bang and even less in a isolated chalet in the middle of Alberta.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 19.  
> Have fun!
> 
> ***WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SELF-HARM AND MENTIONS OF TORTURE. PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THOSE SUBJECTS***  
> (It's not too bad or too graphic, but I really don't wan't someone to get hurt.)

"Jarvis, open up the–"

A blinding light suddenly erupted from the genius's chest, enveloping him in blue. Loki watched as the man he had learned to love gripped the edge of his workshop table tightly before gravity finally won and made him fall to the ground, screaming in agony.

Loki quickly ran to his side, his heart beating erratically and hands roaming over the unconscious form until he finally noticed the absence of a familiar blue glow in the centre of the man's chest. He quickly tore up the shirt, whispering "No, no, no, no..." like a mantra as tears blurred the god's vision and threatened to fall over the body laying under him.

"Jarvis!" He screamed desperately, not taking his eyes of the dead Arc Reactor.

"I'm hacking my protocols to open the Arc Reactor section in the lab. It will be open in a few seconds. We don't have much time."

~•~

As soon as Sir had started to fall, Jarvis had started to hack his own protocols. Mr Laufeyson didn't have access to the Arc Reactor section and he was the only one who could save Sir.

Jarvis knew that it would come to this. He had felt the Arc Reactor dying a little more each day it was fighting the Tesserac. He had done what he could to convince Mr Laufeyson to use his magic to remove the Spell and change the Arc Reactor in a controlled environment. Jarvis didn't trust the god, but it was better than to endanger Sir's life like at the moment.

Mr Laufeyson, had however been too blind to admit the danger Sir had been in and too egotistical to let Sir take back the control over his own mind.

Jarvis had also part of the responsibility. He had made a mistake, had been too blinded by his hatred over Mr Laufeyson and had failed in his duty of protecting Sir by not asking Sir to let Mr Laufeyson have access to the Arc Reactor section. One of the sections Sir had made Jarvis protect from magic the moment he had heard of its existence. He wouldn't let his inventions get into anyone's hands, not even gods.

However, Jarvis would not let his creator die because of his mistakes. He pressed even more, bypassing every shield created by Sir to protect his protocols and finally opened the door.

~•~

Each second felt like an eternity for the god as he looked at the pale face of his genius. He couldn't just wait, he had to save him!

Loki put his trembling hands over the man's heart and pulled the Tesserac's magic out of Tony and into the first object at hand reach, which was a wrench. Sweat ran down his neck and forehead and he didn't notice as the wrench took a blue glow, his eyes still fixated on Tony.

A sob escaped him when the Arc Reactor remained dead and his genius didn't regain consciousness. He heard a door open and before Jarvis could even inform the god, Loki was back at Tony's side, a new Arc Reactor in his hand, demanding instruction from the AI.

They worked together efficiently, Jarvis giving instructions to properly connect the Arc Reactor without inflicting further damage to Tony and Loki executing orders as if he had never done anything else.

Loki held his breath when he finally heard the click indicating that the new Arc Reactor was in place.

"Sir's state his stable," the AI finally announced, sounding relieved.

Loki let out another sob, not having the strength to hold back his tears anymore. He caressed Tony's hair and sat down, his back leaning on the workshop table. He positioned Tony's head over his lap and cried.

~•~

_Fuck, this hurts like shit. What happened? I feel like I just had a heart attack..._

His heart felt horrible, so it was an Arc Reactor problem. But, his head felt all mushy and his throat, raw. The thing is that he couldn't remember having any wild party with lots of booze last night. His face felt wet, which happened extremely less frequently since Afghanistan. Let's say that waterboarding doesn't leave you with an irresistible desire to get your face wet.

_Wait, then what happened?_

All the memories of the past months came back to him in a rush. He opened his eyes in shock, realizing that he was sleeping in Loki's lap and scurried away in surprise.

Loki stirred from his sleep and blinked a few times before his eyes focused on Tony's brown ones. He shook himself and raised a hand in the air, as if to touch Tony, but before he could even stand up, Tony was out of the door.

Tony ran, his breath coming in and out rapidly as the panic settled in his mind. When he finally reached his bedroom, he slammed the door behind him and slid down the door to a crouched position.

His mind was running at a mile an hour and he couldn't breathe. He tugged on his hair in a failing attempt to slow down his thoughts, but even pain couldn't calm the panic raging inside him.

_I betrayed the Avengers. I hurt them! Cap was right, I am such a fucking disgusting human being. God, I betrayed Captain America. Dad was right too, I am just a fucking disappointment. I betrayed the team for a fucking terrorist god! And managed to fall for him on top of it all! I even tried to kiss him!_

He slammed his head on the door repeatedly, hand still tugging at his hair.

_No, no, no, no, no... I can't love him. Tony Stark doesn't love. Stark men are made of iron. I couldn't have decided that by myself. I didn't have any control. He must be still controlling me. He must still be in my head. I have to get him out. Get him out. GET OUT._

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" He screamed as he banged his head against the door again and again.

From far away, he could hear voices and another banging, but he continued to scream. His senses started to get muffled and his heart and breaths felt thousands of times louder than anything else. He could feel warm liquid sliding down his face. He clawed at his face to try and get rid of the feeling of water filling his mouth, his throat, his lungs. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. His vision started blackening on the edge and he screamed louder to will away the thoughts of flying into space with a missile on his back.

However, he had never been able to fight the darkness and he couldn't resist falling into its depth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, cliffhanger again. I'm sorry, It's not exactly planned, but it feels wrong to end my chapters elsewhere. 
> 
> Soooo, please bear with me. ;)
> 
> Oh, and I got my inspiration from one of you for the end of this chapter. They wrote me about a song (High & Low by EZA) which helped me a lot. So, thank you Ayamabuki!


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeeeyyyyy, look who's got a new chapter sooner than expected!  
> Here's chapter 20.  
> Have fun!

The first thing Tony noticed when he woke up is that he didn't hurt anymore. The second was that he was alone. Face and arms covered in bandages, he slowly made his way to the bathroom.

As he looked in the mirror, he finally came to the realization that not only had he just had the most terrifying panic attack of his life, but Loki –Aka God of Mischief, enemy of the Earth, Brother of Thor, fucking terrorist, Coulson's killer and the one who managed to control Tony Stark– had bandaged his wounds. Fear made him shiver and his hands clenched on the edge of the sink until his knuckles were white.

_Don't think about Loki. No feelings. Stark men are made of iron. Deny it until you believe yourself. Push it down until you forget it._

Carefully controlling his breathing, he sat down on the cold tiles of his bathroom, his back leaning on the bathtub, and started to consider his next moves.

He needed to go back to the Avengers. People were protesting. They needed him to settle the raging fire of anger and fear. But, would Loki just let him go? He didn't think so. Tony had had enough time to witness the possessiveness Loki was manifesting around Tony

_Don't think about his arm around your waist when he thought you were sleeping, or that conversation you overheard between him and Jarvis about letting you go._

The thing is that he couldn't just sneak out, Loki would definitely catch him before he even opened the front door. He couldn't play the innocence card either, the god was perfectly aware of the lack of control he now had over Tony. He could easily send a message to the Avengers, but then, Loki would get arrested by Shield.

Wait, why would that be a bad thing? He was a criminal, had killed a lot of people, had kept Tony prisoner and made him attack his own team.

_Don't think about those nights staying up and comforting each other when one of them had a nightmare. Don't think about the fact that they had both been tortured and had suffered from the indifference of their paternal figure. Don't think about the warmth that enveloped you when he fell asleep on your shoulder during a movie. I can't use feelings as a reason not to get him arrested. I need a good reason. A good reason..._

Tony's head snapped up from where he had leaned it on his raised knees. A vague memory of Loki telling him briefly of the Thing that had kept him prisoner and made him use his own rage against everyone appeared in his string of thoughts. Loki had looked entirely terrified, his eyes looking at things only he could see and his mind stuck in an endless nightmare. Between his clenched teeth, he had made Tony understand that the Thing would not accept his failure and would come claim what he had failed to claim, himself.

Tony was aware that that information meant that Loki was not in complete control during his attack on Earth, but he could not let himself admit it, his grudge still fed regularly by the pain that Loki's actions had created. However, there was no way that he would let him fall into Shield's hand. A plan for Shield to start torturing him or draining his power to make new weapons or some shit. No, he could not let that happen.

~•~

At first, he had thought that leaving Tony alone would help him organize his thoughts therefore be beneficial for both of them. Unfortunately, saying he had been wrong was an understatement. Jarvis had alerted him of Tony's distress only a few seconds before he had heard the first thud which had led him to his genius' locked door. Since his magic had once again reached a low point after extracting the Tesserac's out of Tony, the room had been impenetrable. Tony's cries had been getting louder by the second and Loki hadn't been able to bear hearing them much longer. He had needed to get to him.

He had braced himself and pushed the door until it had moved out of its hinges. He had kept it from falling backward, saving his genius from sustaining more damage than what he had already inflicted to himself. The cries had dimmed to whimpers when the god had finally reached the man, his blood covering his face and having found its way under his nails.

Loki had healed him has much as possible with his low resources, his mind filled with cries which would plague his nights for a long time and had retired to the living room to ponder his possibilities. However, he soon had found out that his future wasn't only in his hands and he had to wait for Tony to make his own choices.

He couldn't leave since he had nowhere to go and his feelings for Tony were keeping him from completely disappearing, abandoning Midgard to a war they were no strong enough to fight, even less win.

On the other hand, he feared for his safety and his capacity to help if he stayed. Would Tony betray him and lead him to Shield and the Avengers? It was a possibility. Tony wasn't exactly here of free will and there was an enormous chance that he would turn his back on him and want revenge for what Loki had done to him.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone slowly making their way down the stairs, the wooden planks creaking under each step. Loki diverted his attention to Tony. The genius' face was unreadable, his eyes seeming like they were gazing into Loki's soul, but after a few moments of silence, Tony finally talked.

"I have a plan and you will follow it."


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 21.  
> Have fun!

They were all in the Stark Tower, renovated almost as soon as the Attack had been finished and the Tower had been cleared. According to Jarvis, Tony had planned ahead and had made them each a floor designed with their interests and personality in mind. When Steve had asked Jarvis when Tony had given the order to renovate his own home at their image, the AI had simply stated the date and the time, which were only a few hours after their first meeting. Steve had known that the man was a futurist, but, having seen his floor, a perfect mix of technology and design from his time, he had to admit that he was impressed by Tony's ability to read someone with only a file and a few minutes with them.

The first few days, they had all been in shock, even if Natasha's was less noticeable. They had eaten silently together three times a day in the luxurious dining room, but other than that, they had done their things alone. However, they slowly started to talk to each other more, leading them to sharing their constant deception in finding Tony.

That night, they were watching a movie, Steve didn't even remember which one, and honestly, he didn't really care. His thoughts kept drifting to Tony. It happened from time to time. He wondered how he was doing, if he was planning his escape, if he was still under Loki's control or even if he was dead.

Shaking his head, he stood up, muttering something about getting more popcorn as he grabbed one of the mostly empty bowls, and walked to the kitchen. He put a new bag in the microwave and let his thoughts drift again while the numbers counted down.

A flash of metal from the corner of his eyes was the first thing to alert him. He waited a few seconds to see if it would move before deciding that it was better to turn around and face the potential threat. Since he hadn't bothered to turn on the lights when he had walked into the kitchen, which made the light from the TV in the other room the only source of light and illuminating only a small part of the kitchen, Steve could only see flashes of red metal. Before he could make any connections, gunshots erupted from the TV and the form tripped him, immobilizing his arms and feet and putting an armoured hand over his mouth to muffle his cry of surprise, the thud of his body hitting the ground perfectly synchronized with one of gunshots. Of course he could force his way out of the hold, but a familiar voice in his ear stopped him.

"It's me. Don't make a sound. We have to talk. Alone. Nod if you understand."

Steve hesitated slightly before giving in to his curiosity. If the rest of the team came in, the man would probably leave and come back again until he had what he wanted. Steve nodded and the man released his hands and legs before taking off his hand from over Steve's mouth. He guided him to a corridor at the opposite side of the kitchen, further away from the team, and opened a door to a bedroom. He finally opened the lights and Steve's slight concern was instantly erased when he took in the sight of brown eyes. He sighed in relief and wrapped Tony into a hug.

"God, I'm so sorry, Tony. I shouldn't have said those awful things to you in the helicarrier. I didn't mean any of them–."

"Cap–"

"–and then I told Natasha to close the portal and we couldn't find you and–"

Tony pressed one of his hands, which wasn't squeezed between Steve and him, back on Steve's mouth and looked at him in amusement.

"Shut up, Cap. You did what you had to do and for the helicarrier, well... I said some horrible things to you as well, which I apologize for, but none of this is your fault, so stop apologizing and let me talk before the rest of the team comes barging in and ruins my plan. Oh, and if you could let me move again, that would be great. Not that being wrapped in arms like this is especially uncomfortable, but I would like a bit of mobility if that's possible."

Steve backed away, rubbing the back of his neck and a blush of embarrassment appearing over his cheeks.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I'm just really happy that you're okay."

Tony grinned before forcing himself to regain a bit of seriousness.

"We don't have much time. So, I'll get to the point, but I want you to listen until the end and not interrupt me, okay?"

Steve nodded, curious, and sat on a chair facing Tony, who sat on the bed.

"I know what's happening in the world and I know that you need me to fix this, reassure people that they are safe, put on a show, be Tony Stark. I agree with you, you need me, but, right now, I can't do anything if I can't make sure that Loki as a sort of protection from Shield."

Steve opened his mouth as if to talk, but closed it when Tony shot him a glare.

"No, I am not defending him because of the mind control, and, No, I am not crazy. Loki isn't the biggest threat to Earth right now. He wasn't the one in control, only another pawn in the Big Boss' game."

Tony took out his phone and gave it to Steve to inspect. There were pictures of Loki in all the phases of his attack.

"What do you see?" Tony asked.

"What do you want me to–" Steve started before he stopped himself when he noticed something strange.

He skipped through the pictures more quickly until he finally saw two pictures took from close enough to be sure of what he was seeing.

"His eyes...they're green on this and blue on this one..."

"Bingo! Now, what do you conclude, using the knowledge in unnatural changes of an eye colour to blue, from this statement?"

"...Loki was controlled by the Tesserac..."

This time, Tony only leaned back and crossed his arms as if waiting for a reaction. After a moment, Steve talked again.

"What do you need me to do?"


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 22.  
> Have fun!

Steve came back a few minutes later, empty handed.

"Wow, Cap, you took an awfully long time to get popcorn," said Clint as he heard him walking in.

"...And you didn't even _get_ the popcorn," Natasha added, eyeing him suspiciously.

Steve sighed, looking around warily before leading the team into a bathroom, which would be less likely than be monitored, ignoring Clint's innuendos. "We've got a lead on Tony from Fury. He just called me, giving me the address before telling me that SHIELD needed to get off the radar for a few days. Apparently, he's got a lead in Loki."

Natasha's suspicious look didn't falter. "Why wouldn't he call us or use the TV to inform all of us?"

"I'm the only one without a Stark phone, so he thought it more secure to call me."

Natasha hummed, not looking convinced, but apparently decided to let it go for now.

"Tony would be offended by the quality of your phone, I'm surprised he didn't force a Starkphone on you the first time you met."

"It's useful now, isn't it?" Clint raised up his hand in a placating gesture.

There was an uncomfortable silence until Bruce asked the important question.

"Where is he, then?"

Steve seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts.

"He's in a sort of underground base in Tibet. Fury says that an undercover agent saw him walking in Shigatse and followed him until he saw him entering the base by a trap into the ground. From the information he gathered, we don't know much else."

Bruce stood up and start walking to the door. He glanced back to the still seated Avengers.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's go get our genius back."

~•~

It didn't even take them half as long as if they had flown in a normal plane, but everyone still thought that the Quinjet took way too long to land in Shigatse. In a common agreement, the team decided that Bruce should remain on the jet and serve as backup if the situation turned dangerous. They needed to apprehend Tony, not accidentally harm him.

They took a few minutes to hide it in the Mountains before all but running, while being as furtive as possible, to the base's emplacement. It took them way too long to find the entrance, even with the detailed position the agent had provided them. However, no one was surprised. If it had been easy, they would have been worried the mind-control had damaged Tony's brain.

When they finally found the well hidden trap on the ground, the team let Natasha examine it and dispose of any alarms or other systems that could give them away. She found a camera, a movement detector and a standard alarm. It only took her a few minutes to deactivate them. They were suspicious, but figured that Tony had only recently taken refuge there and hadn't had the time to install more security.

Natasha pulled the trap open, the sound of the metal door scrapping against its frame resonating in the dark hole.

They moved smoothly, everyone on quickly taking their assigned position in the base. The dark base, only illuminated by each of their flashlights, seemed pretty big at first glance. Their lights couldn't meet any wall from where they stood.

As soon as Clint, the last one to drop down from the ladder, closed the hatch behind him, a green mist filled the air. Natasha cursed in Russian and pulled out a handkerchief from somewhere in her suit before pressing it against her mouth and nose. The others covered theirs as best as they could with their hands.

However, it didn't stop the green mist to act as intended. The last thing Natasha saw before passing out is two figures wrapped up in blue and green light approaching them.

~•~

It hadn't been as difficult as he had thought to convince Loki to follow his plan. After hearing Tony out, he had immediately agreed. The difficult part was to actually make everything work.

Starting with the emplacement of his new "base", he decided to choose from one of his secret underground workshops. The more reclusive, the better, since he didn't want any casualties from an unexpected appearance of the Hulk if things turned for the worst. The old workshop in Shigatse was perfect. Surrounded by mountains, it had previously been used for testing dangerous weapons and different energy source including the first Arc Reactor prototypes. When Tony arrived, it was more of a mess than any of his other workshops, which was saying something. It took him a few days, only to clean it all up and install all the Avengers containment material.

However, the part where he needed to get in contact with Steve without alerting two super spies, a green rage monster and a norse god was the trickiest. Why Steve? Because Steve didn't have as big of a grudge as Natasha and Clint against Loki, and Tony knew that he felt more guilty of Tony's disappearance than Thor or Bruce. He would thus be the easiest to convince. Plus, he really was the only one on the team without a Starkphone (which he would change as soon as possible, for this thing was an insult to engineering).

After studying weeks of recording and videos from the Tower picturing their habits, he set a date and an almost exact time to meet Steve. He knew that Clint would be the one to choose the movie, and he knew which one he would choose. He also knew the approximate time the team took to eat two bowls of popcorn and that it was always Steve who got up to refill them. This approximate time was perfectly synchronized with the most violent fight scenes of the movie. That's why Tony chose that day to contact the supersoldier.

Unfortunately, before meeting him, he had to suffer through the most boring part: paperwork. He had created a false Shield rapport for the team to base their research on and another on a supposed lead on Loki's position. Plus, in case someone got curious and dug deeper, he wrote the exact same place where Fury actually was –another stealth mission at the moment– in the false report. Of course, Tony made sure to hide any trace of the implication of Fury in that real stealth mission from the rapport the Avengers would find if they searched for it.

After that, all he needed to do was wait. Loki would take care of Bruce's apprehension if he was left as backup in the jet, securing him in his restrains, and waiting to apprehend the other Avengers. This part had took some convincing on Steve's side, since he really wasn't comfortable with putting his teammates in restrains even if it wasn't for long, but eventually agreed when he realized that they didn't have much time to figure out another plan that would be restrain free, but less efficient.

His silent drone send an alert to his phone when the team finally found the hatch. Tony grinned.

"It's show time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support! I may not be answering to every one of your comments, but I read them all and they help me a lot. :)


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 23.  
> Have fun!

When Natasha gradually came back to her sense, she took in the bonds around her wrists and ankles plus her sitting position on what she considered to be the floor, taking care in not changing her breathing rhythm or opening her eyes. The air was cool and there seemed not to have a lot of light around her from what she could perceive from behind her closed eyelids.

She could hear Steve, Bruce, Clint and Thor, all of them awake from their ragged breathing. Bruce seemed to be trying to keep his under control. She waited a few more moments before she though it safe to open her eyes, but before she could even do it, a voice surprised her.

"Now, now. There's no need for that, little spider."

She cursed to herself, finally opening her eyes to meet those of her captor. From her left, she could hear gasps coming from the others.

"Loki..." Thor said.

"What do you want, monster," Clint asked. Natasha didn't even look at him as she studied every of the god's reactions. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noticed Steve's unusual quietness, as he would have started talking back to the villain by now, but she quickly dismissed those thoughts, taking her attention back to the god.

Loki laughed bitterly, his eyes cold. "For once, it is not about what I want, but about what use pathetic humans as yourselves can be," he answered.

Footsteps echoed from the dark corridor on their left.

"Come on children, be nice," a familiar voice greeted them.

"Tony?!" Clint gasped. Then he turned back to the god, his teeth grinding together in fury. "Let him go. Now."

Loki was about to retort, but Tony cut him again with a hand on his shoulder. Clint looked back at him, surprised by his new position on a chair in front of the team. All their chairs were disposed so they were all encircling him. In the darkness, Bruce's heavier chains were only partially visible. Tony himself was only partially visible.

"I'm sorry for the welcome party. It was necessary, if a little bit overdramatic. To tell you the truth–"

"Get to the point, Tony," Natasha interrupted him.

Tony pouted, crossing his arms, and sighed before continuing.

"Right, so... I may have planned all this, but I didn't really take the time to prepare for this part, so I'll just go for it." He clapped his fingers and a spotlight turned on, focused on illuminating him.

It took a few seconds, but when he made eye contact with Natasha, she was the first to gasp in shock, followed closely by the others. Then, they all started talking at the same time.

"When did you–'"

"How did that even–"

"What the hell–"

"Why are you–"

Tony raised one hand and everybody immediately went silent, shocked.

"To answer some of your questions: no, I am not being held in hostage and I only recently got out of Loki's control –do not look at me like that, Clint. I got out–. As for the how, that's a long story I will tell when we have the time. For now, I need your help in preparing Earth for the biggest threat we've ever seen and for that we'll need to get Loki acquitted. We can't keep running around trying to keep ourselves out of prison or Loki out of some labs."

"He would deserve it," Clint said, under his breath, but it seemed loud enough for Tony to hear because he looked back at him with a reproaching glare.

"No one deserves to be held against their will, used as a lab rat and a scapegoat because some people seek power and revenge, Clint. No one. And even less someone who had no control over their own actions..."

"You can't tell me he had no control. I know, I was there and he was thinking clearly when he made me kill people. Cap, say something!" The look Clint shot Steve was deeply hurt.

Steve bit his lower lip. "Actually, he has proofs that Loki is innocent."

Every head turned back to him.  
  
"And how would you know that?" Natasha asked, brows furrowed.

"He...may have come to me, first."

"So, you lead us on" Clint stated, feeling betrayed. "How could you–"

"Look," Tony interrupted, "I asked him to do it because I knew that if I told all of you without restraining you, things would have escalated and I would be declared still compromised. Now, time is precious and I think you would all like to get out of these bonds. Do you want to hear my proofs or not?"

They all nodded. Thor, who had yet to take his eyes off of his brother finally looked at Tony.

"Ok, so, Thor, what is your brother's eye colour?"

"What does that have to do with anythi–"

"Clint, just give me a chance to explain, would you?" Tony sighed, exasperated. Clint looked not at all for this idea, but looked down and kept his mouth shut.

"Thank you, so Thor–"

"Green. They're green." He glanced back at the shadow waiting behind Tony.

Tony stood up, took an envelope from Loki before sitting back down. He took out about half a dozen pictures and pulled two up so everyone could see. The first one was of one of Loki's rare moments of clarity in Germany and the other was from after the 'cerebral recalibration', gift of Hulk.

"Green like that, big guy?"

"Yes"

"Well, here's how they were between the time both of these pictures were taken."

He pulled all the other pictures, all of them which clearly showed Tesserac blue eyes in the place of the green ones.

"Brother..." Thor reached out as much as he could with his bounds.

"Tony, I believe that you left out the most important information." Loki said, ignoring Thor entirely in favour of walking to stand beside Tony. Tony tensed, but nobody noticed, everyone too shocked by the news.

"Right...in summary, there's this super powerful guy that practically rules the universe and, for some mysterious reason, he has us as a target. We're not actually sure how to defeat him and when he's going to show up, but we'll need Loki with us." He was not going to just state the fact that that guy was mostly after Loki just yet. Tony may not have forgiven him, but he wouldn't just abandon him to his death.

"What about the fact that he kidnapped you? He wasn't under anyone's control and you'll what, forgive him just like that?" Bruce finally spoke.

Tony grimaced. He had hoped that the team would not have thought about it, but it always had been false hope.

"Yeah, well that's... it's more complicated than you think and it's something we're dealing with presently. Can we come back to the powerful maniac trying to rule over everything?"

"That sound like a great idea, but we can't do much, all tied up like we are." Natasha raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

Tony shuffled to his feet and started to unbind them, looking embarrassed, while Loki removed the spells he had put on each bond.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 23.
> 
> PS. Just so we're clear, when dialogue is underlined and in italic, it happened in the past.
> 
> Have fun!

Steve wasn't exactly comfortable with what he had done. Yes, he wasn't aware that they would get gazed and tied up, but he still had lied to his team and lead them into a trap, however safe it had been. At the time, he only had received a report and simple instructions from Tony. He didn't regret doing it, but it didn't sit well on his conscience.

Steve snapped back to reality when he felt his biding being loosened. His wrists finally free, he rubbed them to get some blood back into them and looked around carefully. With his vision being better than most, he could probably see more of the dark room they were in than the rest of the team, but before he could really see more than a few rectangular shapes, Tony decided to turn on the lights.

"The show is over, there's no need to keep being dramatic."

The room they were in was large and spacious. On the walls were still hanging some seemingly harmless plans. Counters were in front of every part of walls he could see, but the cabinets on top of them had been emptied. In the back of the room stood a massive metallic door adorned with too much warning signs to recognize them all. Behind them stood a small table and seven chairs which Tony invited them to sit on before taking one for himself. He clasped his hands together while Loki took a seat beside him.

"Let's get down to business." He looked at Natasha and Clint, expression serious. "I know we didn't have much time to work together, but I need to know where your loyalty lies because, believe me, if you betray me, you'll never see anyone around this table ever again."

Natasha and Clint looked at each other, they seemed to have a silent conversation before they both looked back at Tony at the same time.

"We're Avengers before anything else," Natasha finally stated.

Tony nodded. "Now that this is clarified, let me tell you what I had in mind. You need to get me back to SHIELD, I need to get back into the public, get back their trust. There's a social bomb I need to diffuse because SHIELD are idiots. However, you," Tony pointed at the group need to stay with Loki and make sure he doesn't use his magic until we need it."

"I do not require a caretaker–" Loki started, looking annoyed, before shutting up quickly when met with Tony's glare.

"As I was saying, he used too much of it and we'll need it against that madman. The problem is that, when I'll get back to SHIELD, I'll need to act as if I wasn't on his side to not get interned for being crazy or tortured for being an accomplice. That's where you come in. I'll have to fake searches for Loki and I'll need to be extremely convincing for Fury to believe me. Natasha, Steve and Bruce will stay with me. This implies that Clint and Thor will have to take my place as fugitives –and you'll have to hide really well, that's why I need you there, Clint– for a few months until I can regain the public's trust and make the proofs of Loki's innocence and the impending attack public. SHIELD won't have any choice but to leave him alone, at least until the fight." Clint looked about to protest, but Steve cut him.

"How will you communicate with us?" He asked.

"Communication will be limited, but don't worry, I'll know exactly where you will be at all time and I'll provide you with new updates and weapons as often as possible," Tony answered.

"Wait! I'm not hiding with the psychopath! Why does it have to be me?!" Clint shouted, his hands pointing at Loki with a look full of rage and hidden fear.

Tony sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back into his chair. "Because, I'll need some of Natasha's...particularly skills –Wow, that sounded wrong... Don't look at me like that. That's not what I meant. Who are you taking me for?–. Plus, since your mind has already been controlled and Thor has an emotional attachment to Loki, you both are the most vulnerable, therefore, the most plausible possibility."

There was a short silence, only broken by Clint's halfhearted grumbling, as if to give everyone a time to digest this burst of information before Natasha spoke again.

"How do we proceed?"

~•~

_"First, Nat will have to contact SHIELD, tell them that you have information about me and Loki's location and that the Avengers are going to investigate. Fury can't be contacted right now, so there should be no problem."_

Natasha opened her phone and pressed on the button to call SHIELD's headquarters.

"..."

"Agent Romanoff. The Avengers have information about Loki and Stark's whereabouts. Permission to investigate?"

There was a pause and the sound of papers being shuffled around.

"...granted."

Natasha hung up before nodding to the team.

  
_"What about the microchips in our phones, SHIELD will know that we were already here."_

_"Loki took care of that. He enchanted them so it would send the 'right' locations at the 'right' times to them no matter where we really are."_

~•~

_"After that, it's all about making a lot of noises without doing any real damage."_

_"Does that mean I don't have to participate?"_

_"Yes, Green Bean, not in that part."_

They had installed High-tech projectors, created by Tony obviously, to fake Loki's magic. Loki himself seemed impressed by the resemblance. Thor and Steve wrestled together for only an hour before the ground looked like a war zone. It was covered with craters and cracks, dust making visibility difficult. Natasha and Tony had also wrestled, getting cuts here and there to make it more believable. Bruce stayed inside the jet, not wanting to hurt people in the village not too far away – _"_ _Well, that's what we'll tell SHIELD, anyway."_ –.

When they took off with the jet, they made sure to make the motor roar. If the village not far from there hadn't been alerted by the sounds of the 'fight', they had been when they flew the Quinjet just over it. Natasha even gave Tony a 'false cognitive recalibration', which didn't feel false at all, if you asked him.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 25.  
> Have fun!

"How could this have happened!" shouted Fury.

Tony, Natasha, Steve and Bruce were all sitting around a long table in a debrief room. Tony looked at his watch and... yep, they had lost more than half an hour only getting shouted at.

"How could two perfectly trained agents, a supersoldier, a rage monster, a super genius in a metal suit and a God not only fail in getting the brother of said God into custody, but also lose two of their members to him? All that in only the few days I was gone."

Tony put his feet on the table, "For our defence, the super genius in a metal suit was on the other team for a while before getting cognitive recalibration, which isn't really the best thing to be a super genius."

Natasha continued before Fury could snap at Tony. "Director, we were outmatched, he knew we were coming. Banner didn't want to join us since civilians would have been in too close proximity. Loki got Thor first. Rogers, Barton and I were not enough force to stop them. Loki managed to get Clint just as I managed to immobilize Stark, remove his faceplate and hit him on the head hard enough for him to come back to his senses. We then decided to retreat before we lost any more members."

Fury gritted his teeth. "I expect a full report on this battle and," he pointed at Tony aggressively, "what happened when you were with Loki. Every. Single. Details. Am I clear?"

Tony put down his feet and stood up angrily. "Are you going to make me lose my time doing useless paperwork that only exists to calm your ridiculous power trip instead of letting me do my own goddamn job and start looking for that lunatic still running around the world?" He said, his voice cold, a warning.

"It is not negotiable, Stark. We already have a team on the case. You can join them when you finish those reports."

Tony slammed his hands on the table and stormed off.

"Excuse him, sir. I believe him to be quite shaken by the last weeks." Steve said.

Fury nodded and straightened his back. "You may be excused."

Bruce, Steve and Natasha stood up and left the room for their temporary private living-room where they found Tony sitting on the couch, one arm over the backrest and a proud smirk on his face.

"So, how did I do?"

Natasha's lips curled up slightly. "Not bad, Stark."

"Did you take care of the bugs in this room?" Steve asked, looking around worriedly.

"No worries, Cap, all is taken care of. You know me, I know what I'm doing."

~•~

Clint wasn't only mad, he was furious, enraged! Not only had he been kidnapped, but he was forced to babysit the god who had took possession of his mind and used his body to maim and kill. On top of it all, he was stuck in the middle a family conflict between said god and his brother.

Thor had insisted on sitting in the backseats of the car when he had seen Loki sitting there. They hadn't stopped arguing since the moment Clint started up the car. The archer felt like the father of two young children, on a road trip. The only thing lacking was the constant, annoying 'Are we there, yet?' children seemed having reduced their vocabulary to when in any engine.

"Have we arrived, yet?" Loki snapped, interrupting Thor's monologue.

Had Clint not been driving a car at that moment, he would have slammed his head on the wheel. He contented himself with grumbling a no and tightening his grip on said wheel. Thor resumed his attempts of communication with Loki.

Clint allowed himself to get lost in his thoughts. Tony had given him a list of usable warehouses all around the world, but no itinerary. 'It's better if I don't know', he had said. Apparently, Tony would tell Shield that the genius had given the same list, save for a few houses labeled under the _Emergency_ section on Clint's, to Loki while under his control. That's where Tony will be looking in priority.

The archer decided to head for a house pretty far away first, but he was starting to regret this choice. It seemed like binding them was easier and took less magic than teleporting for the god of Mischief.

_Bouhouhou, poor god doesn't have enough power to enslave anyone anymore and has to ride in a car with his brother like a mere mortal._

A small smirk crept up on the side of his mouth at the thought, but quickly fell back down when the volume in the back of the car increased. He was enraged, but it didn't keep him from seeing the logic behind Tony's reasoning. He could push his emotions back, treat this like one of his missions. At least, he had to do this for Tony, and the world, if the threat he had talked about was true.

"–mourned you, missed you. If what the man of Iron said is true, you can come home after we defeat this monster you speak of."

"His name is Tony and you have NO RIGHT to talk to me!"

"Loki–"

"NO, LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Loki stop this nonsense, you can talk to me. You are my brother–"

"I AM NO BROTHER OF YOURS. LEAVE. ME. ALONE!"

Clint sighed as he watched the sun go down in front of him. This was going to be a long night.

~•~

"Hi, Miss Black. There seems to be a lot of movements recently in the protester groups."

"Indeed, I am presently where the last attack against a group of politicians took place. Two were gravely injured, but nobody is in danger of death anymore. Most of the assailants were arrested by the local police.

Two days ago, a press conference took place, aiming to calm the rage and fear growing in the hearts of New York's citizens. A group of protesters, known by the police for being violent, managed to bypass the security and attack the politicians with knives and handguns. Fortunately, everyone was evacuated quickly and nobody perished during this attack. The situation was handled quickly.

This is only an example of the numerous attacks happening every day against leaders around the world.

Melissa Black, New York City."


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 26.  
> Have fun!

They arrived early in the morning before a small house, seemingly built in the middle of nowhere. As soon as the car stopped moving, Loki was out, almost running to the house. Thor wasn't far behind, following his brother like a puppy. Clint sighed, took hold of the bags and slowly made his way to the house, already apprehending how horrible his stay would be.

When he opened the door, his eyes fell on a cosy living room with, behind the couch, a few counters, a sink, a fridge, a oven, a microwave, a coffee machine –Why am not surprised, Tony?– and a small table surrounded by four chairs.

There were three doors on his right that, since the house seemed to have only one floor, were probably leading to a bathroom and two rooms. At least he hoped there were at least two rooms, he wasn't sure they could survive a whole night with the three of them stuck together in a bed. Not that he would have slept in the bed anyway. The couch seemed a lot safer than sleeping in a bed with Thor and Loki.

He sat on the couch and proceeded to sharpen his knives and arrowheads. It was calming and helped him ignore the angry shouts coming from one of the bedrooms. Before he was aware, the sun was already on its way down. Clint stood back up, popped his back, stretched and dug in his stack of snacks. It wasn't much of a diner, but he wasn't feeling like snooping around the closest town for a proper one.

The archer then looked into one of the bags Tony had packed for them. It was filled with cameras, heat detectors, microphones and a lot of other different bugs, small enough to fit between the bricks on the outside walls or the wooden plank on the inside walls.

"Let's get to work, then."

~•~

_Tony took hold of the missile, his breathing getting faster as anxiety invaded his mind. His vision was blurred and there was a deep feeling of wrongness of which he couldn't figure out the signification. He ignored it in favour of trying to will his hands to stop shaking inside his suit and of looking up into the infinite darkness inside the wormhole._

_"Stark, you know that's a one way..." Steve said, his voice sounding distorted._

_"...Cap?" He answered nervously when he couldn't hear the end of the sentence that he felt he knew by heart. "Cap! STEVE!" He tried to look down, but his muscles wouldn't listen to his commands. Or was it the suit? He didn't know. His breathing got faster and faster, his eyes were starting to water, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the darkness ahead._

_He almost didn't see the missile moving toward the bigger ship. Was there a ship before? A lot more appeared as the missile hit the ship. Tony was falling backward, but his eyes were glued to the blue explosion. It was hypnotizing. Wait, a blue explosion?_

_Blue invaded his vision. He could see himself cuddling with Loki, kissing him. Then the blue became blinding and a hand wrapped around his throat. Loki stood before him, his eyes gleaming in that worrisome blue._

_"Why won't you obey me, Tony?" Howard's voice whispered through Loki's lips._

Tony woke up with a started shout. He sat up quickly, a hand over his Arc Reactor, letting out shuddered breaths. When his panic died down, he pushed himself out of bed on shaky legs and made his way to his bathroom.

He took the glass by the sink, filled it with water, finished it quickly before putting it back where he had found it. He then rinsed his face with his hands and dried it with a soft towel. His movements were precise and curt, as if he was on autopilot. He looked up in the mirror and thought, not for the first time, about how much of a wonderful invention make-up was. The bags under his eyes were prominent and their colour was a contrast to his horribly pale skin. He basically looked dead.

Tony sighed and sat back down on his bed, a Starkpad already in hand. He wouldn't sleep for the rest of the night anyway. He might as well start working on his speech for the press conference.

~•~

The sun had gone down a few hours before and Clint was sitting on the small balcony at the front of the house. He could see the stars from there and could hear crickets and small animals.

The archer had finished, not too long ago, placing the cameras and other gadgets all around the house. Inside, the gods were probably sleeping, or maybe fighting again. He wouldn't know and surely didn't care.

The door opened behind him and pulled him out of his thoughts. He didn't move, but tensed. Loki sat beside him and looked up at the sky.

"It is a beautiful night, tonight." Clint snorted.

"That's the worst conversation starter I have ever heard. What do you want?"

He didn't look at Loki and get to see the slightly affronted look on his face. Loki started talking anyway.

"I wanted to apologize. It may have no impact on the rage you must feel because of my actions, but I do sincerely regret what I have done to you."

Clint sighed. He didn't want to deal with this right now.

"Look, rationally, I am totally aware that you were not the only one responsible for what happened, but I can't...I need to blame someone. And since you are not a Saint either way, even without having willingly invaded Earth, I don't feel so bad for blaming you. I won't stop doing it because you apologized, but I appreciate the fact that you did apologize." Clint passed a hand over his face. "Am I making sense? I don't think I do. My point is that I can't stop blaming you because I can still hear–."

"–My voice in your mind, commanding you and chastising you?"

Clint finally looked over at Loki. The god was still looking at the sky, a haunted look in his eyes. Clint sighed for the umpteenth time today and turned his gaze back at the sky.

"We make a pretty fucked up pair, huh?" Loki hummed.

"Indeed."


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Sooo, Happy late Christmas and New Year! I wish you all a lot of happiness and health.  
> The amazing Alice has started to translate this fic in Russian. If you guys are interested, here it is: https://ficbook.net/readfic/6250656/16000216  
> Here's chapter 27.  
> Have fun!

He was only partly listening. Voices were overlapping each other. Anger, practiced calm, fear, disarray and determination radiated from the members of the meeting.

"We don't have any way to protect ourselves against them! No prisons! No rules! They are free to do as they want! We are exposing our population to a danger that we could prevent with good weapons and an adapted criminal code!"

Sounds of agreement were heard as someone else spoke.

"We have to rein them in!"

Usually, Tony would have taken the discussion where he wanted in a few minutes, defending his friends while agreeing to certain points that made sense and were logical. However, now, this was not how he was supposed to play his part. He was supposed to play the angry and betrayed hero, to agree with them while not having too much impact. He could not start a war between superpowered individuals and normal humans. He would not start a new form of racism because he was playing an act to save Loki.

On the large screen before the Assembly was playing a video montage of a few accidents involving superpowered individuals. First, there were some "supervillains" and a few young adults having accidentally destroyed a few buildings with their probably recently acquired powers. When Loki came on the screen, a deep feeling of longing ripped through his chest, making him gasp. When the few people around him who had heard him looked at him with questions in their eyes, he was quick to glare at the screen in pretended anger to avoid looking suspicious. They quickly directed their eyes back on the screen.

On said screen, it was suddenly so clear how Loki's eyes had been the same colour as Clint's. The blue seemed to mock him and an echo of his own loss of control over his mind came back to taunt him.

To distract himself from those thoughts, he looked at the few people he trusted in the room. When he had came up to them, information and arguments against his supposed point of view on the superpowered individuals in hand, they had looked at him curiously, but knew not to question him and only took the documents with a nod. They probably thought he couldn't control his desire for vengeance, but still didn't want to see his friends get locked up. At least they had half of the truth.

The video was almost finished when he looked at the screen again. The debate was about to start again when he finally stood up, sending a last glance to one of his people –who returned it and nodded–, and spoke for the first time since the beginning of the meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, untrained superpowered individuals like we have seen just now are weapons that could backfire at any moments. They leave destruction, fear and death in their path and make our people distrust our government, justice system and security system. We cannot leave superpowered people roaming around freely. We have to arm ourselves, create strict rules and punishments if those rules are not followed. We need insurances and protocols that do not involve missiles," he glared at a member of the Council, "to protect our people from the threat they are. We can not lose more of the trust of our people. We cannot put our people in further danger. We Can Not let them take Our population in hostage!" He put every ounce of energy he had left in that last sentence and glared around the room before sitting back down.

There was a moment of silence in which Tony feared he had underestimated the impact of his speech, but then the woman which he had made an eye contact with just before said speech raised herself from her seat.

"While I agree with Mister Stark about the importance of the installation of a new system, I do believe that the crucial point is that those superpowered individuals have no way to train themselves and use their powers in a positive way, for our society. If our population's security is what we want, schools and teachers would be necessary for those superpowered individuals are still part of our population. I suggest..."

Tony let out a discreet, silent sigh of relief. She had used his pointers.

He hoped it would be enough.

~•~

The days after that he was stuck in meetings after meetings, snapping orders left and right while pretending to have the wish for revenge. He had to make public most of his houses' locations for his supposed researches for Loki and the others.

His first press conference was mostly about his time with Loki, edited, of course, and what he was planning to do with all the attacks on leaders led because of their mistrust in the government. He started with agreeing with most of the points the reporters made before telling them that the situation wasn't acceptable.

"While I do not support the attacks, I can admit without any hesitation that the government acted like a bunch of idiots and there is a big need of a cleanup in there. We need new people in command, new protocols and new laws for our protection. We can not let something like New York happen again."

After that press conference, he suddenly realized that nobody had called Rhodey and Pepper to tell them he was back. Well... he only realized it when he went back to the Tower – _Am I really that busy that I forget even my best friends?_ – after it and found himself on the receiving end of a rather violent slap on the cheek before getting tugged in a group hug. Some of the tension in his back disappeared and he hugged his friends back tightly, petting Pepper's hair and letting out a sigh into Rhodey's shoulder.

The press conference was also the start of the creepy fans following him everywhere. Sure, before, people would recognize him everywhere he went, people took pictures of him without asking and he had had a few stalkers, but now people were actually waiting for him to leave his building and were bombarding him with compliments, thank you's, political opinions, insults, gifts and request to hold their babies – _Please don't do that..._ – He couldn't even take a walk alone anymore.

With all this, Tony was exhausted. With all the stress, his days seemed like weeks and it was showing with the growing bags under his eyes – which he covered with make-up, but you get the point – and his even paler skin.

He dropped himself down face first in his bed, but didn't have the energy to get under the covers. He closed his eyes and hoped that this would all be over soon.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 28.  
> Have fun!

The first man hunt team that reached Loki, Thor and Clint surrounded the house at dawn the next day. One of Clint's alarms rang through the silence of the morning, waking all the sleepy fugitives from their slumber.

Clint jumped up from the chair he had fallen asleep in and reached for the curtains to have a better idea of the situation. He immediately saw Shield soldiers lurking around the house and rapidly closing in on them. Thor reached for his hammer and Loki automatically raised his hands to use his magic. Clint put a hand on his arm.

"No, you don't. You know you're not allowed to do that. Tony would kill me." Loki clicked his tongue, but put his hands back by his side.

"Now, I know you crazy warrior gods always like a good fight, but we need to engage as little as possible and get the hell out. Not at all would be better since we're not even sure they actually know we are here. They may only be following the protocol and if they are, they might not have any actual lead on us. We can't take the risk of offering them one on a silver platter." Clint continued to talk while opening his backpack. "Go grab your stuff, we're leaving. And make sure to not leave anything behind. They might not look into this place too much if they don't find anything suspicious."

The two gods didn't seem too happy, but nodded nonetheless. When they met again a minute later, Loki was looking blankly through the curtains of the kitchen window. The archer cleared his throat to gain the attention of the two gods.

"Tony left me with a plan of the house and there is a trap in the kitchen opening to a hidden underground tunnel that could lead us outside."

Clint looked around, at the map, and around again, searching for the trap door.

"Come on, it should be here somewhere. Where is it?"

While Thor and Clint were still looking for answers on the map, Loki moved slowly across the room, his gaze focused on the counters and walls as his hands were feeling softly each surface. After a few seconds, he stopped behind a counter. He seemed to push on something before a loud noise took the others' attention back to a part of the floor that seemed to have been elevated. Clint looked over at Loki, surprise on his face.

Loki shrugged with nonchalance. "I learned a few of Tony's tricks and ways during my stay with him." He then proceeded to climb down the ladder concealed in the trap. Thor soon followed him and Clint did too, making sure to close the trap door after him.

When the archer reached the ground, he looked around and whistled.

"Wow, that is way better than James Bond's hidden tunnel."

The tunnel was large, they could all easily fit one beside another. The walls were made in white stones and lamps were illuminating the entire tunnel. There were a few metal doors on the way to the exit with the utility of each written in gold on the upper part of the doors.

Clint took a moment to read each sign. There was a "storage room", a "weapon room" a "safety room" and a "fun room". Clint laughed at the last one.

_Typical Stark, only you would think of getting a "fun room" in a safe-house._

Clint walked a bit faster to catch up with the others who were almost at the exit. When they climbed up again, they were a lot further from the house than they had thought and another car was waiting in a small underground parking indicated on the map.

When the first Shield agent opened the front door, they were already gone.

~•~

"What do you mean, you didn't find them?" Tony snarled. He analyzed their reactions, the Shield agents in front of him didn't seem in any way intimidated by him, one of them only acquiesced to his question. Well, that wouldn't do. He tightened his grip on the chair's backrest before him until his knuckles turned white and made anger flash through his eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, Tony could see a bit of uncertainty in the three agents' eyes. He released his grip on the chair and made his way to them until he was almost in their face. His eyes still bleeding with anger, he made a feral grin appear on his lips.

"You do realize what that means, do you, agents?" He said in a cold voice. Fear was starting to make an appearance in their eyes now. "It means that not only did you fail in protecting our population, but you have failed in protecting your dear wife, Sophia. And you, your brilliant niece Alexandra. And you, your ill father laying unprotected in New York Presbyterian Hospital." At that moment, all their fear couldn't have been concealed if they had wanted to. Tony took a step back and showed his back to them.

"You are dismissed." He said, as if they didn't matter. They all but ran out of his office.

"Was that really necessary?" A disappointed sounding voice said behind him. Tony turned around again, all traces of his previous act gone, true exhaustion taking its place.

"You know the drill, Steve. I need them to feel like I am furious. And you know I always choose the ones that I know can handle it. People not too high on the food chain, but not low enough that it's their first rodeo. They maybe will raise the number of guards protecting their loved ones, but they will get over it in a few days, just enough time to write a report and let people know I'm pissed." Tony said, almost pleading.

Steve sighed and sat down in the chair opposite to Tony's. "I know, but...you're kind of terrifying when you...you know...act."

Tony laughed humourlessly. "I know, I don't like it either..."

Steve took Tony's hands in his.

"We're here for you, you know. If you feel like you're loosing yourself, you better come and ask so we can all cuddle on the couch with a movie because we're your friends and we won't let anything take you away from us again."

If Tony was in better emotional shape, he would have said something sassy, patted Steve on the shoulder and call him out for being sappy. However, in his exhausted state, the genius could only rest his head on his friend's shoulder, murmur a soft thank you and let himself be wrapped in the warmth of godlike muscles.

And if Steve's shoulder was slightly wet when he came out of his office, no one mentioned it.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Sorry for the wait! I went to NYC for a few days to, among other things, go see the Phantom of the Opera. The angel of music is very strict and wouldn't let me post ;)  
> Here's Chapter 29!  
> Have fun!

It went on like this for a few months. Tony was pretending to track the fugitives closely and Clint and the Gods were moving from their current hiding place every few days.

The Accords, that's what they called it, were moving along nicely, but Ross and a few other radicals were fighting for stricter rules that were borderline against human rights. There were talks about the responsibility of superpowered people to "serve their country". Which basically meant that they should be isolated, monitored at all time and only get out to fight for the government. It was bullshit, if you asked Tony. Like he would let slavery become a thing again.

Still, it was grating his nerves to the point where he was getting suspicious of everyone and everything. Plus, the lack of sleep and the constant headache he was dealing with wasn't helping in any way. Therefore, he installed Jarvis in Shield's central system, letting him expand like a virus until he had a way in every little file, and asked him to perform a scan and inform him of any important information.

He also started looking for the rookies he had seen in the footage featuring superpowered individuals. Peter Parker was the easiest to find. He was young and Tony immediately put him in his priorities. He would keep his distances, but keep a close eye on him in case he ever needed help. Other than Peter, there was a few cases of superpowered individual, but Tony found out that most of them were either dead or under the protection of Charles Xavier. The genius made a mental note to talk to this Professor, who seemed like a potential strong ally.

One would think that he wouldn't have time to do much else, but he was Tony Stark. He knew what he was doing and what needed to be done. That included that freaking wrench Loki had put the power of the scepter in. Why a wrench? He didn't fucking know and that pissed him off.

The genius looked over the scans, rubbing his hands over his face in frustration. It didn't make any sense. The wrench wasn't even releasing energy. The energy looked like it was stuck in it, like the metal of the wrench suddenly became an insulator. He checked the scans again. There still wasn't any variation in temperature, any trace of electricity or any other change in the other variables. It might act like an Arc Reactor and directly produce energy without producing heat, but it didn't explain why the energy wasn't leaving the wrench. He sighed and decided to take a break from the lab, which meant leaving the lab for the piles of paperwork in his office.

He walked over to the elevator and Jarvis opened the door without prompting. Tony gave a wordless nod of thanks to the general direction of one of the camera and stepped in. The elevator had just started his ascension when Jarvis called for his attention.

"Sir, I am sorry to inform you that Mr Ross is in route to your office as we speak, ETA 2 minutes."

"He payed off security?" Tony looked up, feeling suddenly even more exhausted than before.

"Yes, sir." Tony sighed and waved dismissively at the camera.

"Get the names and the dismissal letters. You know the drill."

The elevator stopped moving and as the door opened, Tony pulled out his sunglasses. He took a deep breath, pulled them on and put his media smile on his face.

When he reached his office, he only had the time to sit down and quickly pull out some paperwork to make himself look as busy as he is in reality before his secretary almost stormed into his office, muttering apologies. He thanked her and she left, leaving Ross to enter his office and close the door behind him. He had the universal fake smile important people learned to glue on their face, but his seemed more dangerous and angry than Tony saw on most of their kind.

"Mr Ross, while I am sure you have important matters to speak with me, I am a busy man and have little time to grant you that is not scheduled in our reunions." Tony spoke calmly, never taking his eyes off his paperwork.

Ross nonchalantly approached his desk and didn't sit down, leaving him looming over Tony.

"I believe, _Mr Stark_ , that you underestimate the power of your position. Talking against superpowered people's rights, a bold move I understand with the situation you have been in. I myself suffered by the hands of a few of them, but with time, my mind healed and I can think clearly now. Getting back on the subject so quickly after coming back from being fully under the control one of them surely has affected your mental health, I suggest resting and leaving your position in the Accords in my hands since you made it clear that it was similar to mine."

Tony almost tensed before he caught himself. He kept on writing instead. Ross knew he was faking and playing his cards in the dark. _Fuck!_ He had thought that he had managed to fool everyone. Now, if he didn't leave, Ross was going to play the mentally scarred and traumatized card. Just like Obadiah did. _Fuck!_ Ross continued.

"Right now, it is you who are the centre of attention, the one in danger of getting attacked at any moment by a few rogue super powered individuals. You might want to take precautions, or you might get injured. Leaving your place in the Accords will do you the absolute best."

...And he wanted to order an attack on him with the superpowereds he probably already hid somewhere to experiment on. That really would be bad. It would encourage the idea that we should keep them contain in the public's eyes.

Tony finally took his eyes off his paperwork and gave Ross a formal, but confident smile.

"I thank you for your concern and I will take your suggestion into consideration, but I will still ask you to contact my secretary and take a appointment if there is further needs for a meeting. Now, if you would excuse me, I have work to do." He pointed at the door dismissively and turned back to his papers.

He heard the door open. "Good day, Mr Stark." The door closed again.

Tony waited a few seconds before finally speaking. "J, has he left?"

"Yes, sir. Mr Ross has left the tower." Tony sighed in relief and fell back in his chair and put his head in his hands.

"I assume there's no real evidence of any threat?"

"No, sir. Mr Ross only appears to make a suggestion and care about your well-being in the footage."

"He planned this too well, the bastard."

"What will you do, sir?"

"I can't leave the Accords, that's for sure. I guess the only choice I have is to find the Supers before they find me."


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 31.  
> Have fun!

After that, Tony was stuck in a constant game of _Where Are the Supers?_ Every time Tony found one, Ross either had already been there, or was on his way. Tony had stopped counting the number of Supers who had _magically_ disappeared minutes after they were found. While he still had no proof of Ross involvement, Jarvis was still screening each security camera footages around the last places the Supers were seen in hope of finding anything that could help him throw Ross in prison, or at least keep him far away from the Accords.

Tony had released Jarvis into Shield's system, not really afraid of the consequences since he had much more terrifying things to be afraid of then Shield. Information about supers had poured out of the system like water in a fountain and the genius had managed to offer protection to the majority of them. Sure, a emergency button and an undetectable chip wasn't a lot, but it was enough for now.

Peter Parker, with his brilliant mind and bright personality, had been one of his favourite encounter. The kid had fell in fanboy mode instantly, but after talking for a little bit, they had engaged in a conversation about the suit and its functioning. Tony's fatherly instincts he didn't know he had made an appearance and he couldn't resist giving the kid permission to come tinker with him whenever he wanted.

Meeting Charles Xavier had been an entire different story. The man had seemed to trust him instantly and he welcomed him warmly while the X-men seemed to regard him warily. They finally agreed that he had good intentions and genuinely wanted to help Supers. Charles even agreed to further meetings to discuss the education of the Supers and the development of more schools for the Gifted in the world.

He came across Doctor Strange a few times, but they were both too busy to discuss more than necessary. Tony gave him the emergency button and the chip as he did for everyone else and told him that, while he doubted Strange needed to, could ask him for help anytime.

So, when he came across The Winter Soldier in Shield's files, he wasn't surprised. What surprised him more was that most of the files were encrypted, but not by Shield. If Tony hadn't always been super focused while working, he wouldn't have noticed the difference. It took Tony a few days to decrypt them. The files were not as complete as he had wished, but it was enough to find out that the currently frozen Winter Soldier was Hydra against its will and Shield was compromised.

_Surprise, surprise. Shield isn't as clean as they say. Who would have thought? I am shocked, truly._

As satisfying as having proofs of Shield's flaws was, Tony still was the one, again, that would clean their mess. He thought out a few ways to find which agents were involved in Hydra. A few tracking chips and infiltrate part of Hydra's system would do. However, he first needed to go fish out a popsicle in Hydra's freezer.

~•~

Should he have called Bruce, Steve or Natasha as back-up? Probably, but working with a team still wasn't something he was used to. And, honestly, he just hadn't thought about it. He hadn't even informed them of the situation and he knew he would get disappointed glares when he came back. Tony would need to make sure that he wouldn't do that in more dire situations.

Entering the base hadn't been as difficult as he had initially thought. Yes, he had incapacitated a few agents, but nothing major happened. He guessed from the plane tracks on the ground and the lack of actual planes that they were probably moving to another base. Jarvis had said the Winter Soldier was still there, though. Tony hoped he wasn't wrong.

Determinate, he walked quickly down the halls, following Jarvis' instructions in the helmet of his suit. When he came across a computer room, he swiftly connected a USB port to the computer. The port contained an almost undetectable "virus" that would report any important information to Jarvis.

He made his way to the room the Winter Soldier should have been held in. Tony opened the metal door carefully and looked around the room. A chair, looking like it had been used for torture if you took into account the numerous straps attached to it, was bolted into the centre of the room. Computers were all over the walls and in a corner, a familiar tube stood. Recognizing it from the pictures Jarvis had found, Tony ran his gauntlet over the glass to get rid of the frost. A frozen figure appeared behind the glass.

"Hello there, soldier."

Alarms finally blared as Tony strapped the tube to the suit's back and started walking back to the exit by the path he took to get in. He casually took back out his USB on his way out, confident that they wouldn't see it on the cameras Jarvis had trafficked, and blasted a few Hydra agents on his way out. He was grateful of his good timing since he probably couldn't have fought much more agents alone and with a cryogenic tube strapped on his back. He would take the only thing going smoothly in his life with gratitude, thank you.

When he came back to the Tower, he put the Winter Soldier in the Hulk room and added a bed in it. Tony then called Bruce down to announce him the good news that he suddenly had a brainwashed patient in his other self's room waiting to get defrosted.

While he waited, Tony sat down on the new bed and looked into the new information the chip in the Hydra base had transmitted to Jarvis. It only took a few minutes for him to find the name James Buchanan Barnes and his childhood would never let Tony forget that name.

"Shit. Jarvis, call Steve down to... my living-room. Let's not shove James in Steve's face before he's even conscious. Huh?"

"Done, sir. And Doctor Banner is at the door, sir."

Tony looked up from his cellphone and took a deep breath.

"Open up, J. Let's do this."


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 31.  
> Have fun!

"Okay, do not panic, but we've got Steve's not-so-dead buddy slash assassin frozen in a cryogenic tube since who knows how long and you've got to help me wake him up."

Bruce paused at the door, looked at the tube behind Tony, then looked at the worried grin on Tony's face, turned on his heels and walked back out.

"Nope."

Tony stood up quickly and practically ran after the other man who hadn't stopped walking.

"Come on Brucie-Bear, you can't leave him there."

"Nope."

"Steve will be so sad, he'll attack us with his puppy eyes."

Bruce stopped, sighed and turned around again, rolled up his sleeves and walked back by Tony without looking at him.

"Bring me the equipment."

"Yay!"

~•~

"Sooooo, Steve, you might wanna sit down for this."

Steve sat down in front of him, a worried frown on his face.

"Is everything okay? Are you alright."

Tony looked up at him in surprise.

"I thought that you would have asked me what I had done that would leave you worried."

Steve ran a hand through his hair.

"While you might be reckless sometimes, I trust you and your decisions."

Tony looked at him in awe for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"I looked into Shield's confidential files and found out a few interesting things..." Steve already had a disapproving look in his eyes, but Tony didn't let him talk. "Turns out Hydra's still around and infiltrated Shield."

"By Hydra, you mean..."

"Yeah, well that's what they call themselves. Must be the new generation or something. Anyway, I found out that they had a ghost killer and I found out who he was. Before I tell you though, you need to know that he was tortured for years and probably remembers nothing of his life before. He will not be the same man and is currently frozen in the Hulk room while Bruce is trying to defreeze him."

"Tony, who is it?" Steve fidgeted in his chair.

"It's James Buchanan Barnes."

There was a silence, then a quiet "That's impossible, he's dead..." before Tony showed his the footage of the Hulk room. On the bed, you could clearly see James' face as Bruce looked at his vitals. Without warning, Steve jumped out of his seat and ran to the elevator, but Tony managed to get there before him and block his way.

"You can't, Steve. Not right now."

"You don't understand, I need to see him, Tony. I. Need. To."

Tony put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your Bucky, not yet. Give him time."

Steve hesitated and put his head on Tony's shoulder.

"I-I..."

"I know." Tony put his hand around the other's shoulders. The bigger man was trembling against him and Tony could feel his shirt getting wet, but he didn't say anything and just stood there with him, acting as a silent support.

~•~

A bit after, he gathered the team and explained the Bucky, Hydra and Shield situation to them. Everyone but Steve and Natasha looked surprised. If Natasha had known or if she just had that good of a pokerface, he wouldn't know. It was most likely both anyway.

Of course, he got scolded like a little child for going alone in a Hydra base and bringing a brainwashed assassin back without even informing them before. Natasha swiftly got up from her chair, slapped him way too hard behind the head and whispered angrily in Russian in his ears. She might have been talking about puppies and rainbows for all he knew, but she was still terrifying. At least, Tony was glad to see that Steve had put himself a bit more together again. It was a relief since Tony didn't deem himself capable of dealing with all this without him. Bruce even reassured Cap on Barnes' status.

When everybody had their turn in sending him disappointed looks, the genius shared his solutions considering Hydra infiltrating Shield.

"In brief, you only want to track them with some sort of chips." Tony nodded at Steve.

"It seems simplistic, but Jarvis will be able to keep track of their movement and what they will say while being undetectable by any detector. I won't personally listen to what is said for privacy reasons and I will be able to destroy them without anyone noticing anything when someone is confirmed to be loyal to Shield. We'll have a list of suspicious agents in no time without doing innocents any harm."

"How will you administrate them? We won't have time to put them manually on everyone."

Tony's knee jumped up and down in excitement.

"To tell you the truth, they aren't only chips. They are nanorobots, they only need to get in contact with someone and they will all move themselves until they are just behind the agents' ears. That's where you guys can help me. We need to put them everywhere the agents go so that everyone gets one. And if there's already one on someone, the others will just fall down until they find someone without one."

Bruce looked at Tony in awe. "Wow, you really looked into this."

Tony grinned and pulled out a box and what looked like makeup brushes. "Haven't just looked, built them too." He opened the box and the others looked inside with curiosity.

"Where are they...oh is that...I can barely see them."

"That's the point Capsicle. Now, I'll leave these babies with you. Make sure to take good care of them." Tony stood up, brushed up some invisible dust on his thighs and waved at them, walking casually to the door. The three looked at each other in bafflement.

~•~

With Natasha's well known efficiency, it was only a few hours later that the robots were all installed in commonly used places in Shield's headquarters. She had walked nonchalantly through it, discreetly brushing the inside of the code pads on most doors, some walls and vending machines with the makeup brush without forgetting door handles and bathroom stalls. Bruce and Steve caught some agents to put the robots directly on and took care of the outside of the facility.

Tony grinned in front of his holograms, one looking through Hydra's files and the other monitoring the agents. "Monitoring Hydra, Check!"


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 32.  
> Have fun!

He missed him, so much. The god didn't even know when he had started feeling that constant ache in his chest. Sometimes he woke up from a dream about his time with his genius and his throat was so tight he almost couldn't breathe. In times like those, he could only grip the sheets with all his might and try to fight back the tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

Once, he saw him talk on the television and he had to force himself not to teleport himself there immediately and take him in his arms. The fact that Tony was mad at him didn't help soothe his pain at all. Barton teased him about it all the time, saying that he looked like a teenage girl after a breakup. And while he found that comparison extremely offensive, he couldn't help but feeling as if he really had lost his love. What if he never wanted to talk to him again? What if he was disgusted? What if Loki had hurt him? Tony had acted so coldly toward him during the few days before he was revealed to the Avengers.

Unfortunately, heartbreak wasn't the only thing keeping him up at night. _His_ voice kept waking him up, leaving him drenched in cold sweat as he jumped out of bed in fright. He would whisper suggestions of violence against the world and his own, Tony. That thought alone left him nauseous. Sometimes, he wondered if losing Tony made him more vulnerable to _his_ power. He wondered if he would lose himself again and hurt Tony. He wondered if it wasn't better for him to disappear, but he couldn't for fear of leading this world to its demise. He couldn't leave Tony to fight without him.

Loki watched Tony on the news channel, not even listening to what the reporter was babbling about. He could only stare at the smiling genius.

"I will see you soon, love. _He_ is coming."

~•~

The Winter Soldier woke up disoriented. Which wasn't surprising since he always felt that way when his handlers put him into cryogenic sleep. He kept his eyes closed and listened to his surroundings. There was a distinct hum, probably emitted by technology, and he could hear distant voices. His arms and legs were restricted and a sharp constant sound probably indicating his heartbeat was ringing through the space he was in. However, he found it weird that he was restricted since he was lying down and not sitting in The Chair. Plus, his handlers always made sure to make themselves as threatening as possible and showed no fear of him. That's why they almost never restricted him.

He listened more closely to the voices to try and discern what they were talking about and barely managed to avoid flinching when his head started hurting so much it felt like it was trying to split into pieces. His heartbeat, however, he couldn't control it and feet came running toward him as the voices started getting clearer.

"...he awake?"

"...careful...could...dangerous."

"Bucky?"

At that, he couldn't hold back a moan of pain. Hands started prodding him and he tightened his fists.

"Steve, you need to back off. I think the memories are hurting him."

"But..."

"Steve..."

The one called Steve must have done what was asked because the Soldier didn't hear his voice again. His head quickly stopped hurting and he opened his eyes to not rouse the anger of his new handlers.

He instantly met the soft hazel eyes of an unknown person, but he could feel a resemblance to someone he couldn't manage to remember. He could see, in the corner of his eyes, a man with brown hair and a white coat. A scientist. A memory of extreme pain made him remember why scientists were not to be trusted. Behind the hazel eyed man, a big blond man stood. He seemed not to be a threat at the moment, but he still made a slight pain flash in his mind.

"Soldier?"

"Ready to comply. What is my mission?"

That answer made the blond look like he was going to cry and the hazel eyed man's gaze soften even more. There suddenly was a gentle hand on his that made him want to lean into the first gentle touch he had in years.

"Your mission is to sleep and eat as much as you need, read as many books that you have here as you can and tell me when you feel boredom, pain, sadness, fear, happiness, anger, or any other emotions that you feel as abnormal. I'm going to remove the restraints, but you'll have to let us out of the room before you move from this bed. Understood?"

"Understood."

He wasn't in a position to question his missions, but he wasn't trained for this kind of missions, there were too much parameters that he didn't understand. However, he did not ask for answers for fear of retribution and let the man remove his restrains. They slowly made their way out of the room with the walls of glass with only a glance from the blond man.

~•~

While Shield was slowly spitting out all its traitors and prisons were filling up of Hydra agents, Ross was still on the move and needed out of the Accords. Tony wouldn't let him out quietly however. He needed to go out in such a bad way that people wouldn't trust him ever again. With the information he gathered on him on Shield and Hydra's servers, there was enough for him to fill up a case. The only thing lacking was a few controversial pictures that would make the media want to throw him in a pit and never look back.

That's why he made up a false Iron Man mission around one of the places Ross kept the Supers. Then, when he came back with battered and gravely injured children that made him want to torture Ross to death, he would tell people that he had felt like something was off and found all the data for his file against Ross there. He flew the kids in front of a mass of reporter, making sure to cover each child's face to not make them recognizable.

He made sure to contact the families of the children and to take them on the Stark Tower's health floor where they would be treated and nursed back to physical health. Only after taking the time to see each child and talk to them did he go to the police with his file.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooooo! I hope you liked this chapter!  
> As you probably know, Infinity War is coming out soon and I. Am. Not. Ready.  
> Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that this fanfic might be similar in some aspects to the movies. I might also do whatever I want.  
> So that's all, guys. See ya!


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's chapter 33.  
> Have fun!

"...Iron Man rescuing children from a facility where they were tortured..."

"...Ross accused of torture, kidnapping and many other crimes against superpowered children."

"...Ross always demonstrated hatred against Supers..."

"...I'm against Supers doing whatever they want, but Ross has no right to hurt children..."

"...Have you seen those kids?! What he did was despicable. I hope he rots in a cell for the rest of his life. Death would be too good for him..."

"...I never lost fate in Iron Man. I knew he wouldn't hurt Supers..."

"...Yeah, right. He used this as publicity..."

"...What about the Accords?..."

"...Iron Man pushes for the educational and human rights aspects of the Accords..."

"...confirmed in an interview that those children were what made him change his ways concerning the Accords. He wishes to stop being lead by hatred..."

"...Ross condemned to life in a high security prison with no chance to get out under conditions..."

~•~

Things were finally looking up for Tony. With Ross behind bars, Shield finally getting rid of the last traitors and Bucky starting to feel emotions again, there was a big weight off of Tony's shoulders. The Accords were moving along nicely in the best way they could have and Tony could finally drop the false mask of anger.

The genius took the new spare time he had with joy and used it to finally work on the projects he had left unfinished before the battle of New York. He put on some AC/DC at a much higher volume than recommended and started to work. It was amazing how at home he felt there, with his bots rolling around him and Jarvis joking around with him. He had missed this.

Since he was young, he was used to building whenever he felt stressed, anxious or angry and now that he had stopped for a few months, he could finally feel stress bleeding out of his tensed shoulders and back. He sighed in relief. Before he knew it, he was smiling.

Tony worked for hours before Jarvis stopped the music.

"What's up, J?" He asked, his hands still working out the inside of a car engine.

There was a slight pause that made Tony look up with a slight frown. He got up and walked over to his workbench where he took a kind of clean rag to remove at least a bit of the motor oil on his hands. The genius leaned on the workbench and looked up at one of the cameras.

"J? Talk to me."

"...Sir, you might want to sit down properly for this."

Tony moved to sit in his chair nervously.

"J?"

"Sir, I found something in Hydra's database that you might want to know about."

Jarvis pulled up a file named Winter Mission S 1991 Report. Tony looked over it hesitantly until he came across his parents' names and the date of their deaths. He instantly knew what this was about.

"No..."

He scrolled down, not wanting to read anymore, and came across a video. He could clearly recognize the road where they died. He couldn't control the weird impulse that pushed him to click on the video.

"Sir, I do not believe–"

"Mute" Tony breathed.

He watched the video with a weird kind of fascination, his eyes filling with tears, but unwilling to look away. He watched his father beg and his mother suffocate.

Even after the video was over, his eyes didn't look away until minutes later. He then took a shaky breath and screamed his anguish.

The minutes after that were a blur. He ran around destroying everything, throwing things off his desk while tears were running down his cheeks. After what felt like seconds, but hours at the same time, he fell on the ground, letting out horrible sounds of misery. He vaguely remembered asking J for a lockdown before falling into a disturbed sleep.

~•~

He spent tree days in his lab, refusing anyone entry even when he would listen to the numerous messages sent by the team. Some of them, two days in, finally could make him laugh. There were threats of maiming or board meetings from Nat and Pepper respectively, while the others were all about coercing him out with warm food, love or good times that he was missing. It was sweet.

It took him three days for him to accept the fact that his father hadn't been drunk that day, that they had been murdered. It took him three days to accept that Bucky wasn't at fault, that he was a victim too and that he still needed his help. It took him three days to gather enough strength to face everyone again.

When he did, he immediately went to the Hulk room to see Bucky. They had talked a lot since the super soldier had woken up. Bucky often talked to him about the new emotions he was feeling because Steve still made his head hurt, even if some small memories of him were coming back. So, when Tony came in, Bucky looked at him instantly and even smiled a little. Tony opened the door, stepped in and took Bucky in his arms.

Bucky tensed, but carefully returned the embrace. After a moment, Tony stepped back and looked Bucky in the eyes.

"The Winter Soldier killed my parents, BUT" Tony took Bucky's elbow to keep him from moving away. "it wasn't your fault and I forgive you." Tony stepped back and moved to the door. "I just wanted you to know in case you had a freak out because you remembered someday."

Without another word, Tony left, leaving a stunned Bucky behind him.

~•~

As soon as he stepped into the living room, he was tucked into the couch with blankets, lots of cuddles and Disney movies. No questions were asked. He could relax again. With his family supporting him, nobody could tear him down ever again. He settled down more comfortably against Steve's shoulder, pulled Nat's feet further over his lap and stopped thinking.


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 34.  
> Have fun!

It took time, but Bucky gradually remembered Steve. His headaches had receded until he could leave his "room" and hang out with Steve without any accident. For the trigger words that were still stuck in his head, Tony, with the help of his new psychologist, had created a new technology that was way more than promising. In only a week, however very painful and traumatizing, they had practically managed to erase the first word of his programming. And while, technically, one word would be enough, everybody had agreed that they shouldn't take a chance and erase all of them. Tony and his psychologist said that it would only need a few more times to make the first one completely disappear and that the others would do so more easily after that because his brain would be used to it...or something like that. Bucky didn't really hear much after that.

He felt so alive.

After Tony had told him about his parents, it hadn't taken long before he remembered that night in way too much details. It didn't help his self-hatred much, but, as much as he had expected Tony to let him bury himself in his dark thoughts, he didn't. He dragged him to movie nights and still came to his room to babble about his work.

He started bonding with the team and wanting to fight again, with them. However, there was this clear emptiness where their missing teammates should have been. Nobody could fill that hole.

~•~

It was going so well, he should have seen it coming.

Tony was finally giving the press conference announcing the final product of the Accords. He had prepared a victory speech about security and equality for everyone who was scared, superhumans and humans alike. He stood in front of the flashing cameras with barely concealed relief for this was all over and he could finally stop for a while and think about his conflicted feelings for Loki.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come. After months of deliberations and negotiations, the Accords have finally been signed." The enthusiastic clapping and cheering stopped him for a moment. "The journey has been rough, but we did it. We managed to write down regulations that gave justice to humans and superhumans as equals. We managed to help young superhumans see that they are not alone, that they can do good for our world and that people like Ross will not hurt them. We managed to help humans see that they aren't ignored in favour of the Supers, that they can get justice too. We did it!" He said shouted over the loud crowd.

He took the copy of the Accords and held it high over his head as he spoke, proudly. The crowd went wild. "Ladies and gentlemen, 117 countries and I present you the new Acc–" He was interrupted by a rattling sound.

The ground trembled beneath his feet and he dropped the Accords. When he looked in the direction of the sound, he was horrified to see that an enormous donut-shaped spaceship (?) had dropped from the sky into the city. It took him mere seconds to call the suit and he was already gone, flying over hoards of frightened, running and screaming people.

"Jarvis, call Loki." Jarvis didn't answer as he did what was told.

Tony had, of course given Loki a way to be contacted. He just...didn't tell Loki. Sure, it was mostly for times like this, but it had also been a way for him to keep a small link with Loki. The genius had, even at the time, not been able to let Loki leave completely. Then, those feelings almost repulsed him, but now, they felt normal.

"...Hello...?" Came the hesitant answer. The sound of the god's voice made Tony's chest tighten, but the genius ignored it.

"Loki, you need to come back. Now. It's time."

~•~

When Tony landed by the ship, Loki appeared beside him. They stood in silence, carefully avoiding each other's gaze and trying to concentrate on the fairly cliche speech the alien was giving. Tony's pretty sure that he made a few well placed quips, but he probably shouldn't bet on it from the weird look he kept receiving from the aliens. On the other hand, it could also be because humans looked weird to them, who knew?

Blablabla power blablabla salvation blablabla Infinity Stones blablabla...

Tony vaguely registered Loki tensing up at the mention of the Stones, but didn't have much time to think about it because he was soon fighting the aliens with the god by his side. Loki was visibly restraining himself from using too much magic, which meant that the aliens were most likely not the big boss.

At one point, between Tony getting thrown into the air by some weird elements/molecules(?) manipulation-like powers, Loki sending small pulses of magic with his hands and Spiderman suddenly fighting beside them while babbling about a school trip, the rest of the Avengers, including Thor and Clint, came running to help them.

Even without Bucky being cleared for mission yet, he was still, from the top of a building acting as an emergency sniper. Clint being the main one, but they all knew that Clint wasn't keen on staying at the same place for a long time.

The team quickly encircled the alien, weapons drawn on them. One of them clicked their tongue in annoyance and they left with a vow of coming back soon to free them.

"What bullshit are the alien dictators trying to make us believe, again?" Clint said with a sigh, picking up arrows that the aliens had deflected.

"You know... The usual dictator speech: we need to be saved from ourselves, we are puny humans that don't know how to be good to ourselves. Nothing we haven't heard before. It's getting cliche." Tony answered with a shrug.

He approached Loki, who seemed to be lost in thoughts, a frown on his face.

"So, you have some detailed explaining to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo, I have a Tumblr now...  
> I know I am like suuuuuuper late, but whatever  
> I have litteraly nothing on it, but if you guys want to send me some fanarts, prompts (do not have too much hope about me using them since I already got this super long list of ideas, but they're really fun to read) or just talk/comment, be my guest.  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ennastarkfanfics


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> I knooooow, I am so late... I'm sorry, I was really busy last week and had no free time.  
> I'll try to announce my updates on my tumblr too for you guests who do not have an AO3 account.  
> Here's Chapter 35.  
> Have fun!

"Mister Stark, was that Loki fighting side by side with the Avengers?"

"Mister Stark, could you spare us a minute of your time for some questions?"

"Mister Stark, what can you tell us about the alien attack?"

"Mister Stark..."

"Mister Stark..."

Tony walked quickly into the horde of reporters waiting by the tower, flanked by Happy and the security team, a "no comment" leaving his lips every few steps. With difficulty, he managed to get into the lobby of the tower. As soon as the door was closed, he sighed in relief, barely resisting leaning back against the wall, and rubbed his fingers against his temples to try and will away his raging headache.

"Mister Stark, are you feeling alright?" The security guard put a hand on his shoulder, but Tony moved from under it.

"I'm fine, let's get this over with."

With determinate strikes, he walked in the direction of the meeting room, taking the time to collect himself before entering the room with his head raised high. As soon as he took his first step into the room, conversations stopped abruptly and all eyes were on him. He bowed politely and went to sit down straight in his chair.

"I must thank you for attending this meeting on such a short notice. I am sure you have a lot of questions..."

The Avengers had reluctantly agreed that it was better for Tony to, having much more experience than the others in politics, lay down the situation to the world leaders' representatives by himself. And while usually, this kind of meeting wasn't held in a random citizen's tower, there had been damage from the attack and the tower was the best option at the moment.

"...You can now see in exhibit A, information we have gathered on the alien attack and the impending attacks."

"What makes you believe that there will be other attacks?"

"And what are your sources. How can we be sure who to trust?"

Tony resisted biting his lower lip in annoyance and anxiety, that was the tricky part.

"I am sure that you have heard rumours about Loki, the main suspect of the Chitauri invasion, helping us fight the aliens. The truth is that he did indeed help us and I have collected proofs that he wasn't responsible for what he is suspected of."

Chaos erupted in the room, people talking over each other and shouts of outrage. Fortunately, after only a few seconds, Jarvis rang an alarm that diminished the voices enough for Tony to continue talking.

"I know what it sounds like. I, better than anyone, doesn't want to let him go without punishment, but we need his strength because we won't be alive to see the Accords in application if we don't."

~•~

[A few hours before]

"His name is...Thanos."

Finding the small ringing gadget, that was apparently a mean to contact him, in his things had been surprising to say the least, but he hadn't had a lot of time to think about it. As soon as he had touched it, the ringing had stopped. Remembering watching humans with their cellphone, he had hesitantly talked to it. Soon, he could hear his genius' voice, asking for his help between harsh breaths, and he barely remembered to grab the two idiots living with him before teleporting everyone to Tony where they fought at his side, Loki sparing only a thought about the waste of magic.

There hasn't been the time for Loki to talk with Tony, but being beside him had diminished a bit of the god's pain.

Now, they were in a Quinjet that Tony had called in with Shield's "cleaning staff" since there was no time to lose in finding another place to talk. All eyes were on Loki, even as a few members of the team were cleaning up and, in Tony's case, trying to get out of his suit.

Loki fidgeted in his seat, eyes fixated on his own trembling hands.

"After I fell off the Bisfrost, my mind was chaos. Between the revelation of my true origins and my failure to please my current family, there was very little sanity left in me. Thanos, entranced by such suffering, reached out to me. He saved me from my fall and undertook to..."

Loki paused to swallow and looked briefly at Tony before averting his eyes.

"...try and break me completely, make my mind even more vulnerable. After countless weeks of torture, he forced the power of the Scepter upon me. It grew its roots in my mind like a parasite until my mind wasn't mine to rule anymore, my emotions constantly used against me. Thanos then offered me a deal. A planet to rule, an opportunity to prove myself as a leader to Father. In exchange, I had to exterminate the threats to his ambitions and bring the Tesseract to him."

The god sighed as if to try to release the tension in his body. However, it did nothing to dissolve the tension in the room.

"I do not know what his motivations are, but do I know what he wants."

"The Infinity Stones" Tony murmured, deep in thoughts.

Loki nodded.

"There are six Infinity Stones, three of which are currently on Earth. The Tesseract itself contains the Space Stone, while the Sceptre contains the Mind Stone. I can feel the Time Stone's power on Earth, but I am unaware of its current specific location."

"Wait a minute. What are those stones and why are they so important that that Thanos guy would go through all this trouble to find them?" Clint interrupted.

"The Infinity Stones, created by the primordial cosmic beings named the Cosmic Entities, are six powerful stones that each has their power linked to an aspect of the universe. They are the Space Stone, the Time Stone, the Mind Stone, the Power Stone, the Soul Stone and the Reality Stone. An ordinary individual could not dream of wielding even one of them without terrible consequences, but, together, their power is like nothing else in the universe. It is for that boundless power that Thanos exterminates whatever is standing between him and his goal."

Loki looks up at Tony's Arc Reactor. "Actually, I would have believed the Stones to have no adversary, but Tony proved me wrong."

Everyone looked back and forth between Tony and Loki, curious.

"Tell me, Tony, how could a human create an artifact so powerful it could compete with the Mind Stone's power?"


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Here's Chapter 36.  
> Have fun!

Tony walked out of the meeting room with an exhausted sigh. The representatives had not been keen on letting a suspected world terrorist help counteract the worst threat to the Universe. He ran a hand through his hair as he walked reluctantly to the elevator, knowing too well who was waiting for him on his floor.

_"Tell me, Tony, how could a human create an artifact so powerful it could compete with the Mind Stone's power?"_

He walked in, hesitantly pushed the button which would lead him to his floor. Leaning against the closed door, he pondered over the last few hours. Learning about the extend of Loki had shaken him more than he could admit. He could not imagine how someone could live through such trauma and still be sorry for his wrongs on Earth.

_"Tell me, Tony, how could a human create an artifact so powerful it could compete with the Mind Stone's power?"_

_I don't know!_

Tony rubbed his eyes aggressively. It was all such a mess. He was all such a mess. He didn't know how it was possible for the Arc Reactor to fight an Infinity Stone's power. He didn't know how to fight any extragalactic terrorist. He didn't even know how to act around Loki! Was he really going to have to forgive all of the god's wrongs toward him for the team's sake?

_Yeah right, for the team's sake._

Tony missed him, missed him terribly. Seeing him again made his heart ache. However, he was still so hurt and scared to be hurt again.

The _ding_ of the elevator interrupted his train of thoughts. He tiredly dragged his feet into his living room, not at all surprised by the god sitting on his couch, while loosening his tie. He sat beside him and put his head in his hand, not having the energy to look at him.

"...What do you want, Loki?" He said softly.

There was a pause, then a hesitant hand on his shoulder.

"...I simply wanted to inquire after your health."

Tony let out a humourless laugh and dug his palms deeper into his eyes.

"I'm great, like always."

The hand on his shoulder traveled to his back. Tony repressed a shiver.

"Tony..." the god called softly.

"Tony, look at me."

He could not refuse such request, so he raised his head and met the worried, gorgeous green eyes of the god. His desire to keep Loki at a distance went up in flames. He leaned into the hand on his back. He needed this. He needed the comfort. Even if it made him weak in the eyes of someone he should not trust. Even if his pain he would worry about the consequences tomorrow.

Loki slowly put his other hand on the back of his neck and pulled the unresisting genius in his arms. Tony put his nose in the god neck and let out a shaky sigh as the god started petting his hair.

"I-I can't..."

"Shhhh..." The god pulled him tighter against his chest and laid them both down on the couch so Tony was totally laying on him.

Tony finally let himself go, his vision getting blurry and sobs racking his body. He felt hands in his hair, soothing him. He didn't know how long he cried, but when he stopped, he was even more tired than before and he was laying on a tears drenched Loki.

"'M sorry 'bout your shirt..." Tony said sleepily, his eyes dropping.

He felt a kiss on his on his forehead.

"Do not worry about such things."

"'M still mad at you"

Loki hummed and Tony fell asleep.

~•~

When he came back to himself, it was to the sound of hard whispering voices. Loki kept his eyes closed for a moment to let himself understand more about the situation that was happening around him.

"...kidnapped him and kept him under mind control!" That voice seemed to be the archer's.

"I know. I know, but it's not our choice to make. Plus, he really needs sleep right now, so we are better not to wake him up." And there was the Captain.

"We can't let him sleep with him!"

"Shh, you'll wake them."

It all came back to him: his exhausted genius sitting next to him, but not willing to look at Loki, worry tormenting the god's mind, not being able to resist touching the object of his love, ending up with an armful of his love and comforting him while his genius let go of his masks until they both fell asleep. Loki discreetly tightened his grip on the man in his arms before opening his eyes. Fluffy brown hair was taking half of his vision and he buried his nose in said hair before looking up at the arguing Avengers.

"I won't let Tony be hurt like that again!" Barton was saying, his hands forming tight fists by his side."

They had not yet noticed that he was awake. Barton was gesticulating as he talked while Rogers was trying to lead him away from them with a leading hand on his shoulder. Sadly, Barton wouldn't move and Loki decided that it was taking too long.

After making sure that his love was still deep asleep, the god whispered softly to the two. They immediately stopped talking and looked over in surprise.

"I have no intention of hurting him ever again. He means more to me than whoever else in the Universe and I do not hurt the ones I care about. However, as I am still a selfish being, I shall not leave his side, unless he sees me unworthy of that place. I shall slay and love for him if he so asks. Now, I would ask you to leave us be, seeing as Tony's sleep is a rare, precious thing."

There was a moment of silence where both Avengers did not move, surprised by the sincerity they could hear in the god's words, before Rogers finally managed to move the still baffled archer to the elevator.

Loki let out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes again, soothed back to sleep by the warm breaths against his neck.

**Author's Note:**

> Take a minute of your time to leave a kudo or comment if you liked this chapter. :)
> 
> See you soon!


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